


Vol 2: Someone please shoot me!

by MARKSE



Series: Semi Original Works [2]
Category: Sea Fret Fan Club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-01
Updated: 2017-09-01
Packaged: 2018-12-22 11:46:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 26
Words: 33,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11966715
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MARKSE/pseuds/MARKSE
Summary: Vol 2 of my original work. See Vol 1 in the same series for the first part and notes.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Vol 2 of my original work. See Vol 1 in the same series for the first part and notes.

John Cooper woke to feel his eyes taped shut, a tube down his throat. He went to raise his arms and felt bindings. Shit. He knew what this was. He'd seen it used on Cindy when she was brought back in Ruby's body. Unable to speak he forces his wrist around the bed frame and taps a nail against the metal three times.

"Sir, he's awake."

"Good, good, if you could soak off the eye tapes please Denise?"

"Yes sir."

Tapes? They'd stopped using the glue, good. Cindy had complained about the side effects of getting the glue on her eyes. John moves his head and instantly regrets it. If his eyes weren't already shut he'd have winced. A new surgery scar for Neural Lace no doubt. A second in how many days? He thinks hard about his last moments, recalls the car being side swiped by a massive lorry, his head moving sideways at speed and.. thankfully that last moment was missing. As he felt warm water being gently dripped onto his eyes he pictures the lorry front. He'd not had lace long before the accident but he'd already learnt that you could recall things in slow motion, pick out details you'd otherwise have missed. It looked like something out of Mad Max. No road legal lorry had steel plates welded to the front. He'd not seen it until it was too close. If it had a registration plate he'd not seen it. He feels his fingers and thumbs. They were different. A thick scar on his left index finger was gone. One thing was for certain.

He'd been murdered.

"John, I'm going to remove the breathing tube, keep very still." Moments later it was out. "There, can you breathe on your own okay?"

John takes a few good deep breaths, "Yes. Oh Christ." The pitch of his voice was way higher, squeaky. It hadn't broken. "How old is this body?"

"Luke? Let me see, nineteenth birthday due in a couple of months."

"And he sounds like this? What does he look like?"

"One thing at a time John, have patience. Denise, call Cindy in would you please?"

"Certainly sir."

The doctor finishes soaking off the eye tapes. "You and Cindy in at the same time, that was most unexpected."

"Cindy? What happened?"

"Pulled from the sea again after she learnt of the accident. There's something a bit strange about that one."

"Strange?"

"Her body was as limp and lifeless as they come before RM sets in yet she had a ruby pendant held tight in a clenched fist."

John smiled to himself. The ruby had been in his family for years, now it was hers. He frowned. "Same body? Is she okay now?"

"Yes, same body, she really just needed a new block and bringing around, we took the opportunity to give her the latest lace and interface. She woke up screaming saying she wanted to die. She calmed down a little when we said we had you in the next room. Try and sit up."

"No tubes down.."

"No. JPUH did that before rushing your body over. Luke's parents signed a release."

They hear the door open and footsteps. Cindy steps around the movable screen and screams.

"What's wrong?"

"I.. I can't.."

"Can't what?"

"I put you in the coma!" She starts backing away.

"You mean Ruby?"

"Ruby, Cindy, we're one and the same person now. I'm sorry John." She flees the room, tears streaming down her face.

John sighs, "Fuck. That went _so_ well. What does she mean one and the same?"

"Ruby's memories got into the lace backup, there was no easy way to separate one from the other."

"You said the sea. Did she.. "

"Go to take her own life? No, it was an accident, they were wading into the water to escape a falling house. She's a fighter."

"A _house_?"

"On the east coast she said. Land erosion."

"Oh. Did anyone get me clothes to change into?"

"A charity dropped some in, they're under the bed."

John looks at himself in the mirror. Luke's body was a massive disappointment. He clearly had a bad diet and got very little exercise. "This was the best available?"

"Unless you wanted to come back as a woman, yes."

"I'll admit to being curious in my youth as to what it would feel like, but no thanks."

Doctor Arakawa smiles, "I'm sure given a year or two you'll have it in good shape."

"Assuming he has the metabolism. Some people can eat all they like and never put on any weight, fat or significant muscle."

"As it's you we'll cover full blood works, let you know what you're dealing with."

"Thanks. Do we know anything about Luke?"

"Only what Ruby's father said. He liked raves, anything with his daughter about, took too many pills and overdosed."

"Shit. I want every test going then, I'll pay to fill in the gaps. If he's been abusing his body with drugs he could have done all sorts of damage that can't be seen."

"As I said, we'll do full blood works."

"Thanks. Any idea what happened to my things?"

"Things?"

"Keys, wallet, phone.."

"No idea, sorry. We'll need to make a call, we only got access to your lace data thanks to Cindy, didn't get to see a body."

"Oh. So you didn't get to back me up?"

"No. Cindy said whatever you remember of being John Cooper is down to the recollections you had when seeing your parents after we fitted lace the first time."

John's shoulders dropped. "Did you use the protocols to do a full wipe of Luke's memories?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm a dead man walking. A shadow of my former self. Can I use a phone?"

"Of course, dial nine on.."

"A mobile with Cindy's number. I don't remember it."

"I see. You think she'll be ready to talk to you already?"

"No. But I need access to my research, bank account, somewhere to live."

"Let me call her, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you."

"Denise, take some blood please, for every possible test."

"Yes sir."

John watches him walk out of the room, again looks in the mirror. "If only Captain America was true. Scrawny youngster to past self in minutes."

"I only got to see you dressed, when we worked on Cindy. Did you have a good body?"

"They didn't call me Six Pack John for nothing."

Denise smiles softly, "You have your work cut out then."

"That's a massive understatement."

The doctor returns, phone in hand, "Sorry John, she's rejecting my calls after a couple of rings, we'll have to give her a few days to get over the shock."

"Where on Earth do I go?"

Denise leans against the bed, "You could stay at mine, my eldest is traveling in his gap year."

"Thanks."

"And you could use my Casada Power Board to help with your fitness."

"Could either of you loan me some money? I've no idea how I'd repay you at the moment. And I'm not calling my parents yet. I think the shock might give my father a stroke."

Doctor Arakawa pulls out his wallet, takes out a City Bank Mastercard. "Don't go crazy. The pin is 4377."

"Thank you."

"There's an IBIS a short distance away if Denise's other boys prove too much. And you're welcome to sit at one of our PC during the day."

"Thanks again."

"I have other patients I must attend to. I'll write my mobile number down for you."

PostIt handed over John gives his friend a good strong pat on the back. "I have no idea how I'm going to repay you for all your help."

"It is I that is repaying you. Without you and Cindy I wouldn't be the UK's leading Neural Lace surgeon."

"Really?"

"It's missing from your memories?"

"It is."

"Come back at eight o'clock and I'll take you to dinner, fill in a few gaps."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-2-1)


	2. Chapter 2

John Cooper woke to feel his eyes taped shut, a tube down his throat. He went to raise his arms and felt bindings. Shit. He knew what this was. He'd seen it used on Cindy when she was brought back in Ruby's body. Unable to speak he forces his wrist around the bed frame and taps a nail against the metal three times.

"Sir, he's awake."

"Good, good, if you could soak off the eye tapes please Denise?"

"Yes sir."

Tapes? They'd stopped using the glue, good. Cindy had complained about the side effects of getting the glue on her eyes. John moves his head and instantly regrets it. If his eyes weren't already shut he'd have winced. A new surgery scar for Neural Lace no doubt. A second in how many days? He thinks hard about his last moments, recalls the car being side swiped by a massive lorry, his head moving sideways at speed and.. thankfully that last moment was missing. As he felt warm water being gently dripped onto his eyes he pictures the lorry front. He'd not had lace long before the accident but he'd already learnt that you could recall things in slow motion, pick out details you'd otherwise have missed. It looked like something out of Mad Max. No road legal lorry had steel plates welded to the front. He'd not seen it until it was too close. If it had a registration plate he'd not seen it. He feels his fingers and thumbs. They were different. A thick scar on his left index finger was gone. One thing was for certain.

He'd been murdered.

"John, I'm going to remove the breathing tube, keep very still." Moments later it was out. "There, can you breathe on your own okay?"

John takes a few good deep breaths, "Yes. Oh Christ." The pitch of his voice was way higher, squeaky. It hadn't broken. "How old is this body?"

"Luke? Let me see, nineteenth birthday due in a couple of months."

"And he sounds like this? What does he look like?"

"One thing at a time John, have patience. Denise, call Cindy in would you please?"

"Certainly sir."

The doctor finishes soaking off the eye tapes. "You and Cindy in at the same time, that was most unexpected."

"Cindy? What happened?"

"Pulled from the sea again after she learnt of the accident. There's something a bit strange about that one."

"Strange?"

"Her body was as limp and lifeless as they come before RM sets in yet she had a ruby pendant held tight in a clenched fist."

John smiled to himself. The ruby had been in his family for years, now it was hers. He frowned. "Same body? Is she okay now?"

"Yes, same body, she really just needed a new block and bringing around, we took the opportunity to give her the latest lace and interface. She woke up screaming saying she wanted to die. She calmed down a little when we said we had you in the next room. Try and sit up."

"No tubes down.."

"No. JPUH did that before rushing your body over. Luke's parents signed a release."

They hear the door open and footsteps. Cindy steps around the movable screen and screams.

"What's wrong?"

"I.. I can't.."

"Can't what?"

"I put you in the coma!" She starts backing away.

"You mean Ruby?"

"Ruby, Cindy, we're one and the same person now. I'm sorry John." She flees the room, tears streaming down her face.

John sighs, "Fuck. That went _so_ well. What does she mean one and the same?"

"Ruby's memories got into the lace backup, there was no easy way to separate one from the other."

"You said the sea. Did she.. "

"Go to take her own life? No, it was an accident, they were wading into the water to escape a falling house. She's a fighter."

"A _house_?"

"On the east coast she said. Land erosion."

"Oh. Did anyone get me clothes to change into?"

"A charity dropped some in, they're under the bed."

John looks at himself in the mirror. Luke's body was a massive disappointment. He clearly had a bad diet and got very little exercise. "This was the best available?"

"Unless you wanted to come back as a woman, yes."

"I'll admit to being curious in my youth as to what it would feel like, but no thanks."

Doctor Arakawa smiles, "I'm sure given a year or two you'll have it in good shape."

"Assuming he has the metabolism. Some people can eat all they like and never put on any weight, fat or significant muscle."

"As it's you we'll cover full blood works, let you know what you're dealing with."

"Thanks. Do we know anything about Luke?"

"Only what Ruby's father said. He liked raves, anything with his daughter about, took too many pills and overdosed."

"Shit. I want every test going then, I'll pay to fill in the gaps. If he's been abusing his body with drugs he could have done all sorts of damage that can't be seen."

"As I said, we'll do full blood works."

"Thanks. Any idea what happened to my things?"

"Things?"

"Keys, wallet, phone.."

"No idea, sorry. We'll need to make a call, we only got access to your lace data thanks to Cindy, didn't get to see a body."

"Oh. So you didn't get to back me up?"

"No. Cindy said whatever you remember of being John Cooper is down to the recollections you had when seeing your parents after we fitted lace the first time."

John's shoulders dropped. "Did you use the protocols to do a full wipe of Luke's memories?"

"Yes."

"Then I'm a dead man walking. A shadow of my former self. Can I use a phone?"

"Of course, dial nine on.."

"A mobile with Cindy's number. I don't remember it."

"I see. You think she'll be ready to talk to you already?"

"No. But I need access to my research, bank account, somewhere to live."

"Let me call her, I'll see what I can do."

"Thank you."

"Denise, take some blood please, for every possible test."

"Yes sir."

John watches him walk out of the room, again looks in the mirror. "If only Captain America was true. Scrawny youngster to past self in minutes."

"I only got to see you dressed, when we worked on Cindy. Did you have a good body?"

"They didn't call me Six Pack John for nothing."

Denise smiles softly, "You have your work cut out then."

"That's a massive understatement."

The doctor returns, phone in hand, "Sorry John, she's rejecting my calls after a couple of rings, we'll have to give her a few days to get over the shock."

"Where on Earth do I go?"

Denise leans against the bed, "You could stay at mine, my eldest is traveling in his gap year."

"Thanks."

"And you could use my Casada Power Board to help with your fitness."

"Could either of you loan me some money? I've no idea how I'd repay you at the moment. And I'm not calling my parents yet. I think the shock might give my father a stroke."

Doctor Arakawa pulls out his wallet, takes out a City Bank Mastercard. "Don't go crazy. The pin is 4377."

"Thank you."

"There's an IBIS a short distance away if Denise's other boys prove too much. And you're welcome to sit at one of our PC during the day."

"Thanks again."

"I have other patients I must attend to. I'll write my mobile number down for you."

PostIt handed over John gives his friend a good strong pat on the back. "I have no idea how I'm going to repay you for all your help."

"It is I that is repaying you. Without you and Cindy I wouldn't be the UK's leading Neural Lace surgeon."

"Really?"

"It's missing from your memories?"

"It is."

"Come back at eight o'clock and I'll take you to dinner, fill in a few gaps."

[Chapter-2](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-2-1)


	3. Chapter 3

The young girl at the EE store shook her head, "We need those if you want a contract."

"All of them?"

"We can't credit check you without them and set up a DD."

"DD?"

"Direct debit? With your bank? Are you okay?"

John sighed, "No. No I'm not. I'm going to get this a lot. I should have a.. thing made up. I'm John Luke. I was in a car accident, I don't remember a lot of my past. Well none of it worth mentioning. I'm lucky I can remember how to talk and walk."

"Jean-Luc as in Star Trek?"

"John Luke. May I?" He points at a pen.

"Sure."

"Like this." He writes. "Good. I can still write. Glad that wasn't lost."

"Oh. Not like Jean-Luc Picard then."

"Who's he?"

"The captain of the Enterprise?"

"A ship?"

"A star ship."

"A space ship? Wow! When was that built?"

"It wasn't, it's fiction, a TV series and films."

His shoulders drop. "Oh. That's a shame."

"How much data do you want?"

"Enough to last a few months?"

"I guess asking you what your data usage will be like is pointless?"

"Totally. Take your average heavy data user and double it. It's a good job I was talking about the Internet in general with my father before the crash, that's still in there."

"Will you be making many calls?"

"A few. I'll be using the web more I think."

She turns her screen around, "I think this SIM only Everything Pack is what you'll need."

"Five Gig? Is that a lot?"

"Assuming you'll be connecting to WiFi when at home, yes."

"Home. Hmm. Okay."

She picks up the card terminal and turns it around, "Twenty five pounds times two then. If you could pop your card in."

"Thanks. Card. That was the word I was looking for. Is there anywhere I can get a little card made up?"

"To tell people your problem?"

"Yes."

"I wouldn't bother. Download Keynote and make a little presentation on your phone. You can then hold it and let them watch it."

"Keynote?"

"Tap your pin in, I'll set your phone up on the SIM, connect it to our WiFi and download it for you."

"Don't I need iTunes on a PC or something for that? I don't remember any of my details."

"Oh. Not these days. We'll set you up a new account. How about Johnluke@icloud.com?"

"If it's free." He enters the pin.

"Good. Give me a sec and I'll get you a SIM. Any preference on number?"

"Preference?"

"The digits in the number."

"Whatever's handy."

"In that case." She opens a draw under the desk and pulls out a pack. "We had one returned after a number was assigned just before you came in. The lady'd literally just got a mobile then decided she didn't want a phone at all."

"Was she old, silver haired, wearing a blue jacket with a bloody ugly broach on the lapel?"

"You know her?"

"No, we were in CEX at the same time."

"That was her. She just left her phone on the table and said _I don't want it_ and walked off."

"She left the phone?"

"We told her to take it, she said to bin it."

"Did you?"

"A good iPhone six plus? Of course not. Want it?"

"If it's going spare."

"We all get good deals on phones so don't need it." She turns, "Ren, got that Six plus please?"

Half an hour later John had a working phone, had the iPad set up on the personal hotspot, a new email address, apps installed and could surf. "Thanks a lot Cristine. You've been a massive help. Now I can start working out who murdered me."

" _What!_ "

"The accident wasn't an accident."

"But you're not dead."

"Take away a person's life and they're as good as, even if they're up and talking. I lost my girlfriend, job, friends, car, memories, how much can you lose and still be a person?"

"Um.."

He could see tears forming in her eyes. "Don't cry. I plan to get my life back together. It might take years as the medical team said. I've not exactly got a lot to lose by trying."

Back in the street he entered the two phone numbers he remembered, his real parent's, the Coopers, and Doctor Arakawa's. He sent a message to let the doctor know the new number and again thank him. He fished out the CEX manager's card and entered the details.

Life was currently an act. He couldn't be John Cooper. Not yet. He'd have to keep inventing a little to get through each encounter.

He checks his wrist for the time. No watch. He goes to pull out his phone. What's the time? His lace compute block answers. Haha. He'd not thought of that. There were hours until dinner with Arakawa-san. He'd need some more clothes, he'd look like a tramp if he wore these for a week. He laughed to himself. "Where on Earth do I buy clothes? Actor becomes observer." He moves into the middle of the path and leans against a phone box, watches the other male shoppers looking for clothes that caught his eye. It didn't take long at all. "Hi! Excuse me! Can I ask.."

"Piss off weirdo."

"What? I only wanted to ask where you bought the shirt!"

The man doubles back. "What's your game?"

"Game? No game. I lost all my clothes in an accident, need to buy a new wardrobe."

"So you didn't pick those?"

John looks down at the ill-fitting clothes. "The hospital gave me these."

"Blind were they?"

"No, but yes they got the sizes totally wrong. They were a donation from a charity. I can't get out of them fast enough. I've got almost total amnesia, can't remember where I used to shop."

"You're winding me up."

"I wish I was."

"Who's the PM?"

"Not a clue."

The man paused to read John's face, saw nothing but sad honesty. "Fuck you're fucked. The wife orders these for me online, sorry pal, can't say where they come from."

"Oh well. I'll have to stop someone else."

The man points, "End of this row of shops, turn left. A couple of hundred yards on the right there's a massive department store, you can't miss it. You can see things and try them on. I doubt they'll have this but they'll have something similar."

"Oh thanks. Who's the PM?"

"Got a phone?"

"Yes?"

"Go to the BBC News web site, you'll see. They've just done something monumentally stupid."

"Oh. Okay. Thanks."

John watches the man walk away and whispers to himself. "First impression, twat. I guess we both misread each other." He looks at his partial reflection in a shop window, "I can't say I blame him for his first impression. It looks like I got dressed in the dark."

After a couple of hours of walking around he'd got himself a suitcase, small rucksack, shoes, underwear, a couple of pairs of trousers, a pair of jeans, multiple shirts and a jacket. He still had hours to kill. And a belly that was starting to ask for food. When talking to his father he'd remembered the night with Cindy, the sushi meal. He'd kept those details to himself of course. Sushi. That's what he'd have. Just enough to take the hunger away.

Sat in a cubicle in a Yo!Sushi branch he got the iPad out and checked the news. The things members of government got up to behind closed doors. He shook his head. "So stupid."

He searches for Neural Lace and finds the main alliance site, signs up as a new member, entering the serial number and model of his compute block. Seconds later his phone chimes as a text comes in confirming his account was set up. Reading all his old posts would help fill in some gaps. John Cooper entered he taps the search icon and watches the page reload and display a short message. "Due to unprecedented volumes of plagiarism it is no longer possible to search by user name? Fuck!"

The young lad wiping down the next table looks up, watches him for a second and gets on with prepping the table for the next customer.

"I lost my old account, it won't let me see my old posts."

The lad ignores the comment and gets on with his work.

John grabs another couple of crab and avocado sushi rolls and has a think about what to do next. So much of his life was on that old phone. If only he could get it back. He pulls the new phone out and taps the Contacts app, calls Doctor Arakawa. A recorded message said he was in surgery, to leave a message.

"Hi Zilla, it's John, Luke. Were you able to find out where my things were? I could really do with my old phone back. Call me please."

Dark soy sauce and some wasabi added to a roll he picks it up with chopsticks and pops it in his mouth. Another thing remembered, how he didn't know. He chews and posts a forum message asking himself, John, a question. When he got his old phone back he'd be able to.. What the hell? The icon at the top of the screen had just changed. A red dot with a 1 inside said he had a message. He chews more and swallows. Icon tapped he reads. "Please read my profile text before asking questions direct. Regards John Cooper?"

He'd never set profile text. Or set an auto reply. Someone had his login details or had set up an auto responder on news of his death. He clicks the profile and reads. Goosebumps has his arm hair stand on end. The profile text said he was busy on research, then on holiday for a month. "Last updated 09:10 _today_? What the hell?"

He presses the button to call staff over.

"Can I get you anything else?"

He jumps, a lady was standing slightly behind him. "Jesus. No, just the bill please."

[Chapter-4](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-4-1)


	4. Chapter 4

Wheeling his suitcase of worldly possessions through the shopping centre back towards the high street his phone rings.

"Hi! ... What? Nothing except a key from the ignition? That's not possible. I would have had my house keys, phone, wallet, the compute block.. Yes, yes, not your fault, you're just the messenger. Thanks. I'll see you in a couple. I think you should increase your security, someone murdered me and has stolen my identity. No I'm not joking, they've updated my Alliance profile this morning! No no no, not yet, I want more information. I've got an idea. Can you send me Cindy's number? She might not want to talk but she needs to know. Yes. Yes, see you soon. Thanks."

He slides the phone into his jacket pocket and starts walking again. They'd killed old Cindy, if they harmed her now she was Ruby he was willing to die fighting the people behind it. He has a flashback of Cindy, or was it Ruby? Dancing with him at the rave. More Goosebumps. What were those words? _What were you thinking, what went through your head_? Probably the car's door pillar and seat belt mount. He searches for the lyrics and gets But I Did - Extended by Beat Service.

The lady in the EE shop had given him a promotional Spotify account that the old dear with the horrible broach had turned down. He finds the track and creates a play list. The act of doing so makes him remember Cindy dancing around the bedroom in just underwear as they played favourite tracks. God he loved the woman so much. And now she couldn't look at him. "Luke you were an arsehole! But thanks for the donation." He does a wide u-turn and heads back to the GAME store he'd passed. Some second hand headphones had been up on a shelf in the window.

Ten minutes later he's got the track on loop, headphones on, as he enters the High Street once more. Maplins. Where had he seen them? Near the phone box he'd leant against earlier. He walks at a pace, the case bouncing a little on the uneven pavement. Maplins had been mentioned when he'd been sat in his office with Cindy, Tina, Sally and Jane discussing hardware for illuminated costumes.

As he walks more memories of Cindy return, on the bed above the covers on her front, feet up with knees bent, wearing only a thong, a smile and the ruby pendant. What they'd been doing before that moment was lost. The memories of her beautiful smile was as clear as a day.

"Can I help you?"

"Yes. I'd like a battery suitable for charging an iPad, iPhone and another USB device, something I can charge it with that doesn't require mains as I plan to do a lot of traveling."

"I see. Charge them one at a time.."

"All at once."

"So three or more ports. What were you thinking of for a power source?"

"I wasn't, that's where you come in."

"Okay. We've got some solar panels designed to trickle charge a car battery via the lighter socket. You'd need a twelve to five power converter to bring it down low enough to connect to the battery."

"I'll have one of those then please."

"We don't have any. We've probably got all the bits to make one."

"I'll have all of those then please. And a circuit diagram and a box to put the bits in."

"Tools too?"

"Assume I'm sat on your shop floor and want to leave with the finished thing."

"Okay.. though you can't actually do that."

"I didn't think I could, just imagine everything I'll need."

"Right. How fast do you want the battery to charge?"

"As fast as possible."

"Then using a few solar panels in parallel will boost the current you get."

"Nice. Actually, how big are they?"

The shop assistant holds hands apart in L shapes.

"Good. I could stick some side by side on the luggage case lid, stick the battery and adapter inside, have it charge as I'm travelling."

"You could. You'd need to make holes to get the wires through." He looks down at the tough shell case. "Do you want to drill and bolt the panels on or use double sided foam tape?"

"Lets try tape first, it sounds easier."

"Plan on doing a lot of traveling do you?"

"I'm on a bit of a mission, it may take me all over the country."

The shop assistant grabs a basket, "Okay, PV are down here.. this is the one. How many do you think?"

John takes it, does a quick slide down the case lid, "Six I reckon."

"Okay. I'll ask Fred to get a circuit diagram and pick components for you. Tape and project boxes are down here."

With his headphones down around his neck and the music still playing he follows towards the back of the shop.

The sales assistant picks a few more things from shelves and hooks, drops them into the basket. "I went to a rave in Hackney with some mates, they had that track in one of the DJ's sets. You should have seen some of the girls dancing to it. Oh my days.. What I'd do to have a girlfriend like them. They're out of our league."

"Why do you say that?"

"We're hardly the bronzed gods they go after."

"Looks aren't everything."

"Right. In our dreams."

"Did you get any photos?"

"And video."

"Got them with you?"

"Yeah. Let me talk to Fred and I'll show you."

Minutes later John is watching a video of himself dancing with Cindy. "If I told you her name is Chloe and I danced with her would you believe me?"

"Nope. I was close by all night, didn't see you once."

"I didn't see you either."

He laughs, "I guess that's possible if we were both watching her gyrations. You sort of block out everything else. Did you see this one?" He switches to another video, "She's way tasty."

"Haha, yes. She's a lesbian, you wouldn't stand a chance in hell."

"She's not?"

"Is. I know her personally. My friends help her with electronics for her costumes. Her and the girl in the morph suit covered in lights."

"Man alive.. if you hear of any more gigs with them can you let me know?"

"If you give me your phone number and send me _all_ the photos and video you've got from that night. Not just the stuff with the girls in, everything."

"Why everything?"

"I had my.. phone stolen."

"Oh. Alright. You promise you'll let me know?"

"What are the odds, meeting you?"

"If not me it could have been someone else, all the shops along this street have some staff that are part of that rave crowd."

"They do?"

"I say all, it might be closer to eighty plus percent. If you want to hook up with any of them you'd have better luck finding them on a Saturday, most are at college or uni."

"Noted, thanks. You didn't want to go to uni?"

"I did, slacked off first year of sixth and messed my grades right up. Where are you making this thing?"

"At a friends house tonight I hope."

"So you'll have mains for a while. Got a drill?"

"No."

"We do one that's like a Dremel." Fred walks over with a bag of parts and a printout. "Thanks man."

Everything collected and rung up John whistles at the total. "How much! Where's all the money going?"

"Six panels, drill kit and soldering set. You could drop a couple of panels and increase the time to recharge the battery."

He slides the card into the reader. "I'll go with the six. It just came as a bit of a shock. Can you message me all those pics and vids?"

"Sure, what's your number?"

"Um.."

"Go into Contacts, where is says My Card at the very top, tap it, then Share Contact, then Airdrop with me, with a bit of luck you'll see me in the list, I'm Mike."

"Okay.. share.. Airdrop. Mike. Cool."

"Got a good contract?"

"Pay as you go. Started today, 5 gig with EE."

"That'll do. That said.. if I connect your phone to the store WiFi for a moment I can message them without eating into your allowance. I got a bit snap happy."

"Sure."

John unlocks his phone and hands it over. "I had all my photos on the old one, lost the lot. I had a bad car crash, can't recall my iTunes email, so can't recover any of it. I had some nice pictures of Ruby on there too."

"Ruby?"

"Oh.. Chloe's nickname. She loves wearing red and has a ruby heart pendant."

Mike taps away, doesn't look up. "Nice. You must have emailed someone from your account?"

"Sure, but how do you reach someone when you've not got your email or theirs.."

"What social media did you use? Post a selfie and message to say you lost your phone, ask people who know you to DM their details."

"Direct message?"

"Yeah."

John's phone bings repeatedly.

"I'll give it a try later." A lie, nobody would have a clue who he was other than Cindy and she didn't want to know. He watches the two phones sat next to each other as Mike continues to tap away.

"Oops. I think I sent you a couple from the previous rave. You'll know which ones they are, the lighting setup is totally different. Loads of bloody annoying strobes going constantly."

"Thanks."

Mike moves his fingers over the camera roll doing a count. "One video missing.. no, it's arrived. WiFi.. forget network. Done." It's handed back. "You'll keep in touch right?"

"Sure. Any rave news I'll let you know."

"Thanks, only Kev can be a bit flakey with the messages."

The name probably should have rung a bell but didn't. "Kev, Kev, can't picture him, my head got a bit of a slamming in the accident. Got a photo of him?"

"One sec.. here he is."

"That's Kev? Not even distant bells ringing. Oh well, thanks for all your help."

"No problem."

[Chapter-5](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-5-1)


	5. Chapter 5

John returned to the shopping centre, went downstairs to the toilets and locked himself in a cubicle. He watched the video of them dancing together and cried like he'd never cried before.

After twenty odd minutes of wishing he could wake up and find it all a bad dream he blew his nose on some toilet paper, wiped his eyes and stood up. Time? The compute block answered. Time to meet his friend Zilla. He opened the door and stepped out to find two of the shopping centre security walking in.

The attendant points. "That's him."

"Everything okay sir?"

"If losing your memory, girlfriend, house, car, identity and everything else of value to you is okay then yes, fucking brilliant thanks!" He hurriedly walks past them and wipes his eyes again.

"Only trying to help sir."

"I know, I'm not having the best of days, sorry."

He sticks his headphones back on and has a eureka moment. Their shared playlist on Spotify. Other students from the uni crowd had followed it. Maybe he could use it to make contact with some of them without needing to know their email addresses. What the hell had they called it? If only he'd told his parents some useful information and not trivia.

He takes the escalator and walks to the seating down the middle of the corridor. "Ruby and John something?" After a few seconds of trying different permutations he found it. "Thank you social apps! Bloody brilliant!" He tapped around, no way to message anyone? Crap. At least it gave him names, hopefully the same names he could find on Facebook.

Then a Plan B popped into his head. He posted one of the photos from Mike on Instagram and added a mass of hashtags, added text to say John had given him his email address, had gone and lost it, did anyone have it as he needed to get in touch.

He pocketed the phone, extended the luggage handle and walked toward the street in a hurry.

He found Denise and Genzo outside the hospital entrance talking. "Denise, Zilla, all done for the day?"

"John! Yes, we're done. Hungry?"

"A little."

Denise stops leaning against the wall, puts her vape cigarette away. "Will you be coming to mine?"

"If you don't mind me soldering and drilling a little project together?"

"Not at all, the boys will probably want to watch."

"Okay. Can I have your details?"

"It might help."

"Want to AirDrop them to me?"

"From an Android phone? I don't know if that's possible."

"Oh. If you could enter them then please?"

Denise puts out a hand for his phone, "How late will you be?"

"That depends on where Genzo is taking me and how much he can tell me about my past."

"The boys will need to be in bed by midnight latest."

The doctor smiles, "We can always meet a number of evenings, it doesn't have to be just tonight."

"True. There's a few key details I need. Did you take my comment on security seriously?"

"I did. We have a local firm coming tomorrow to change locks, install CCTV and build a panic room."

"That seriously, wow. A good idea though. Cindy, myself, who next?" He's handed back the phone, "Thanks."

Doctor Arakawa smiles, "One of the reasons I don't mind you spending a little of my money. I know you John. You want to get these people, I can see it in your eyes. Luke's eyes."

"Oh I want to get them all right. And I want them to suffer. You didn't send Cindy's number?"

He taps his pocket, "I didn't want it going over the network as plain text. Who knows who's watching?"

"True. I'll see you later Denise."

"Have a good meal."

Doctor Genzo "Godzilla" Arakawa waves an arm, "Shall we Cooper-san."

John bows, "Lead the way master."

Genzo laughs, "I wish."

"Of lace fitting, there is none better."

"True. May it stay that way. I don't like the idea of being on someone's list."

"Where are we heading?"

"A nice private restaurant known only to those who've walked the path of enlightenment."

"Oh yes?"

"You remember where we first met?"

"Do I! Yes! Thanks to an enjoyable evening with Cindy, her trying some for the first time that memory was anchored and not going anywhere."

"Good. It's closed."

" _WHAT_! But they were _brilliant_!"

"True. And not being magicians unable to be in two places at once. So when I and other members of the Secret Sushi Society bankrolled their new restaurant the takeaway had to close."

"You're kidding me? They've finally opened a restaurant? Where?"

"Patience young Cooper-san, all will be revealed in good time."

John had made up the bit about being the son of a Japanese surgeon when in CEX. Being born in Japan? No. His father had been posted to Japan with work for three years. He'd been conceived and born out there, spent the first two years of his life hearing English and Japanese, eating Japanese street food.

"Do you have a travel card John?"

"No. Is it far?"

"Two stops on the underground. We'll walk. You picked some nice clothes John, you look very smart. Very fitting."

"Thanks."

John's phone chimes, he ignores it.

"Check it. It could be a message from Cindy."

"I doubt that very much."

"The crane does not let the fish pass and hope for a second chance to strike."

"True, but she doesn't have my number."

The doctor laughs, "Arakawa match making services say otherwise."

"You sent her my number?"

"Prefixed with the words _For when you are ready_."

"Thanks!" The phone is checked. "Oh. An Instagram message?"

"What does it say?"

"One moment, oh crap."

"That doesn't sound good."

"Hi, Luke, I didn't want to post a comment against the photo, many people don't know still. So so sorry to have to tell you this. John's dead."

"Why would they message you?"

"I posted a picture of Cindy and I at a rave taken by someone else, asked if anyone knew John's email address. I need to find a way to recover my old account."

"You should have just asked. You've accidentally sent University things from your personal account a number of times."

"I have?"

He gets his phone out, "Watch the road! I don't have a body to bring you back a second time."

"Unless I want to be a woman."

"Correct."

They wait for traffic to pass and cross.

John turns to his friend, "You don't know what you don't know. And in my case that's a hell of a lot."

"Sadly, yes." He passes his phone, "Commit this address to memory."

"Thank you. That's half of the equation." It's passed back.

"And the other half?"

"A password."

"Sorry Cooper-san, I can't help there."

[Chapter-6](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-6-1)


	6. Chapter 6

The doctor stops at a blank metal door and smiles. "Stand perfectly still."

"We're here?"

"No."

"Then why.."

"Still.."

"Okay?"

A light flickers. "That will do." The doctor walks on.

John looks all around and frowns, "What was all that about? Arakawa-san?"

"Come on John, not much further."

John picks up his case by the handle and walks fast to catch up. "Why stand there?"

"Registration. A new member needs to be introduced by an established member. If any unknown people come to the restaurant doors they will remain locked."

"It's a bit extreme isn't it?"

"An extreme restaurant requires extreme measures."

John laughs, "You helped bankroll an extreme restaurant?"

"I did." He steps to a glass door of a building with blacked out windows. "Face the doors please."

John does so and hears a click. "We're here?"

"We are." He opens the door, "After you."

John steps inside and looks around the plain lobby, "I hope they didn't get too much cash off you."

"As a man in a new body you should know not to judge a book by its cover." He presses a lift call button. It bings. "In you get."

There was a single button inside. It's pushed. They feel the lift go down.

"Close your eyes and take my arm."

"Why?"

"The effect will be far greater."

"Okay."

"Konbanwa Arakawa-san. May I know the name of your guest?"

John feels Genzo's arm move, he was bowing out of respect. "The young man's name is Luke."

"Good evening Luke. Welcome to Osaka."

The lady's voice was a soft voice with a Japanese accent. John opens his eyes to see the lady in full traditional dress. He gives her a bow and compliments her in Japanese.

She smiles softly and returns the compliment.

Genzo let go of his arm and grins. "Where did that come from I wonder?"

"No idea. What a gorgeous costume." The restaurant was exquisite. It was quiet but busy. "This place is amazing."

"Everything you see here was hand made by Japanese masters. Many of whom live in the UK and are now members."

"The carvings, the painting are.. just wow. No wonder you want this place kept secret."

"Now you're a member you can invite Cindy."

"If she'll talk to me."

"I'm sure she will, eventually. Let's sit." He takes his shoes off and walks further into the restaurant.

Without being asked the hostess wheels John's case behind her station, walks behind him and starts to remove his jacket.

He moves to help, smiles when it's off. "My phone." It's taken from the pocket. He takes his shoes off and lets her put them next to the doctors. He knew he could have done it, he respected her need to be seen to do her job.

At the low table he kneels down and looks at the grinning face watching him. "What?"

"That was impressive for a man that probably thought he had no memory of Japanese. Did you talk Japanese with your parents the other day?"

"Not that I recall."

Genzo puts a set of folded papers on the table. "Everything we know about Ruby and Cindy. Her father was most helpful. Please keep the source to yourself. I want you to commit this to memory before I burn it."

"Now?"

"During the course of our meal."

John turns over the pages, "That's quite a lot of information."

"See the words, read them later."

"Right. Let it get into the lace.."

"Exactly. When you're ready we'll order."

The rice wine flowed. The two sushi chefs came over and talked to the two briefly before taking their order. They were part of a team of six, each a specialist in their chosen field.

John put the papers down for a moment, "They can't make anywhere near the amount of sushi they used to at the takeaway."

"Like the painters and sculptors that decorated the interior they too are artists. Quality over quantity. They now have time to create masterpieces."

"Masterpieces? Their sushi was always fantastic, Cindy was dead impressed.. I should stop using that phrase."

"Yes. More wine?"

"Please. Where did you get all this information?"

"My associates got information from contacts at the Alliance, University, students, the Internet.."

"Your associates?"

"We don't just eat sushi. We're no Justice League but we do have a couple of old members that were in the Kempeitai back in Japan."

"In what?"

"Google it tonight. They are good at striking up conversations with people of all ages and getting them to part with information."

"Interrogation?"

"Friendly conversation. When they tell tales of the past others feel the need to compete, get their tongues wagging."

"So they trick them into talking?"

"Is than not better than water torture?"

"Yes, yes of course.."

"We learnt from our past. It is sad to see that so many other cultures do not. Ah! Now that is a masterpiece!"

John stared at the large plate of sushi that had just been brought to the table. "I need new words, that's.. stunning."

"Wait until you taste it."

John's mouth opened and he thanked the waitress in Japanese. Then frowned. "Where _is_ this coming from? Did you push a Japanese language course into my Neural Lace backup?"

The doctor was about to sip some wine and freezes, "Cooper-san. Your mind is working well. Congratulations."

"You did?"

The doctor sips wine, smiles and puts down the tiny cup. "A gift from Denise. She cried when she realised how small your backup was."

"Like Neo with Tank in The Matrix? _Whoa, I know Kung Fu_?"

"You do. When the time comes to need them, you will find you know a dozen of our best martial arts."

"This scrawny.."

"Stop! Size and strength are not important. Speed, agility and knowledge are. Did David not take down Goliath?"

"Mythology.."

"But a good analogy. You will know how to use an opponent's size and weight against him, or her, should the need ever arise."

"Thanks. What else did you push in there?"

The doctor rubs the back of his own head, "A few other things. An understanding of the human body. You may find it useful should you need to fight someone in unconventional ways."

"What.. have you got lace?"

"I wish I could have fitted it myself. I wouldn't call the lady a butcher, but I'd have done a better job of the stitches."

"When did you have that done?"

"After your surgery, before you woke up."

"I've not noticed any cable?"

"That's because the socket isn't in the usual place."

"Where is it then?"

"Fourth rib down on the left."

"On a rib? How.."

"Have you heard of a ventriculoperitoneal shunt? Or VP shunt?"

"No?"

"It's a medical device that relieves pressure on the brain caused by fluid accumulation. It's a tube that runs from the head down to the stomach. It inspired the change. My lace cable runs down my neck and to the socket bolted to my rib."

"Why go to that length?"

"For the very thing you perceived. Nobody thinks I have lace ."

"And your block?"

"Of Japanese design. Very wide and flexible, worn like a girdle. I would have fitted one on you only Doctor Akiyama was only able to bring the one with her from Japan."

"Why only one?"

"Only one has been built to date. I'm wearing the prototype. At great expense. It was made by a robot, they're about to go into full production. In a couple of weeks I should be able to get you and Cindy one."

"Fantastic. The cable does get in the way and get noticed. Does your one restrict movement at all?"

"No. Enough talking. Read and eat Cooper-san. Enjoy!"

[Chapter-7](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-7-1)


	7. Chapter 7

An hour and a half later they were stood in the lobby again.

"Genzo my friend, that is a little bit of Japanese heaven you have hidden away downstairs. I congratulate you on your choice to back them."

"Thank you John. Enjoy your stay with Denise and the boys. I'll see you tomorrow?"

"You will. Talking of Denise, has she got lace yet?"

"Not yet, I'm waiting for the units to come over from Japan."

"Okay. Until it's fitted I'll be her body guard."

"An unexpected offer. Thank you. I wish I had more of you to protect the rest of the team."

"Can't any of your associates help?"

"They'd stick out like sore thumbs. We need to appear to be carrying on as if nothing had happened."

John does a shallow bow towards his friend, "Thanks again, same time tomorrow?"

"Same time. And I'll let you try the noodles."

"Looking forward to it already."

"See you then. I have to go burn some paper."

"How do I get the doors unlocked?"

"They will unlock when you are close."

John walked down the street towards the underground station with a spring in his step and smile on his face. "I'm the most unlikely warrior you could get! Time for some music."

He stops and turns the case on it's side, unzips the lid to get the headphones out. Everything was there. And some extra footwear. Inside one shoe was a rolled note. Ribbon removed he unrolls it to see a message in traditional brushed script. To his surprise he could read it, another gift from the team? The shoes were from the receptionist he'd complimented. "For when you want to walk as a ghost?" Proper Ninja shoes! "Bloody hell!"

Headphones taken he zips the bag back up and continues his walk. He gets the track playing then stops. Cindy's number is dialled, after a lot of rings it goes to voicemail. He recites a poem. "Hi Cindy, it's John. Sorry about the voice. That was a Japanese poem about love and honour, protecting one's family. I know you don't want.."

Beep.

"Blast." He'd hit the message length limit. He dials again. Waits for the ringing to stop and message. "I know you don't want to see me, but I need your help with the compute block. I know you must know some tricks that aren't on the forums. I still love you, always will. Be safe Cindy." He hangs up.

At the tube station barriers he sees someone tap in with a blue and white card. "Excuse me! Hi, I'm visiting London. What did you just use?"

"An Oyster card."

"Where can I get one?"

"Most news agents, there's one over the road."

"Arigato. I mean Thanks!"

Pretending to be a Japanese tourist might get him a bit more slack when showing his lack of knowledge.

He crosses the road and buys a card and travellers guide to London, loads it with a couple of hundred pounds.

Back in the station he checks the contact details for Denise, starts to walk towards a tube map. Half way there he bursts out laughing. Another gift. Full knowledge of the map, each line and the many interchanges.

He taps in and heads for the escalators. Earlier he'd sat on a toilet seat lid and cried his eyes out. Hopefully Luke's voice would break soon. He'd switch back and forth between research and working out while Denise did her shifts. Doing nights would be a pain, but being a firm believer of no gain without pain he'd get through it. He'd work on transforming himself as much as possible into the John Cooper that Cindy knew.

At the bottom of the escalator he looks at the signs and turns left, joins a quiet platform just as a train rolls in.

The apps Cristine had recommended and installed on the phone are checked out as they're carried north. There were quite a few screens full of them. All sorts of productivity tools, not a single game. He gives them each a few minutes study, starts moving them around into more logical groupings, humming along to the track still on loop.

There's a bit of commotion at the end of the carriage. He glances over expecting to see evening drinkers having a bit of a scuffle. A woman was sat on the floor, knees up, surrounded in water and breathing heavily.

Without a second thought he whips off the headphones and unzips the case, stuffs them inside and goes to the woman.

Her partner gives him a disgusting look, "No way are you a doctor kid, fuck off!"

"No. But I did help deliver my kid sister when the ambulance didn't come in time. And I have brand new clean clothes in my case. It would be better to sit on them than a dirty carriage floor."

The lady screams as another powerful contraction hits and pants heavily. "Charles! Don't be an arsehole, the boy's being more helpful than you are!"

"The course didn't cover train births!"

"It feels like a fucking train wants to come out, I need help Charles!"

John looks at the panicked man. "Next stop pull the alarm. Not before."

"Okay. How old are you?"

"Almost nineteen."

"You're just.."

"A kid who's done this before. Want my help or shall I go and sit down, let you get on with it?"

The lady screams again, pants and glares at her partner.

"Okay! I'm clearly a waste of space at the moment, get on with it kid."

The woman glares again, "Get on with it? I'm not a bit of meat at the sodding butchers!"

The train slows as they approach a station. John nods towards the doors, "The alarm Charles."

"Right. Yes."

John looks at the woman, "I'm going to have to rip your underwear, sorry, I think the baby's close."

"Do it."

John looks around the carriage, "Put your phones away! Give her some respect! Anyone got some hand sanitiser?"

"I'm not that dirty!"

"It's to stop me giving you or the baby an infection, I don't care about a bit of blood."

"Oh." The lady smiles, "You're alright. Unlike my _waste of space husband_!"

Charles pulls the alarm early and the driver panics and slows a bit too fast.

The lady screams again as another powerful contraction hits just as she fights to stop falling backwards. "I can feel.."

"It's head? It's coming." John feels a tap on the shoulder and turns to see a man in turban holding out hand sanitiser. "Thanks!" He turns back to the lady and is about to wash hands. "Oops, wrong order. I need to open my case first." He turns and unzips it, washes hands and pulls out the other trousers.

She looks past him, "What are all those.. things?"

"Solar panels so I can make a charger for when I'm travelling. Can you raise your bottom a bit?"

She does so and grimaces, he quickly slides them underneath, grabs and unfolds shirts and places them partially under her. "There, that should be a bit more comfortable than the hard floor."

"Have you always been this thoughtful? Can I swap you for my husband?"

John laughs, "No to each question. Sorry." He rips the underwear at the gusset, "Is this your first baby?"

"Yes, why?"

"How long were you having contractions?"

"I thought they were phantom ones again, she's not due for a fortnight."

"So how long?"

"Half an.." she screams. "hour?"

With the train stopped at the station staff clear the carriage and let them know an ambulance is on the way.

"The girl will be here before they arrive. Push!"

"Name's Charlotte by the way."

"Luke. Push hard Charlotte."

She'd got into a good rhythm and did her breathing and pushed.

"Oh hell!"

"What!"

"Stop pushing! The cord's around the babies neck."

Charlotte starts sobbing. "I can't stop now."

"You have to!"

Her crying gets worse, her husband looks more clueless than before.

"Don't panic. I need your permission to touch you in ways your husband might disapprove of."

"Char.."

"Do it!"

"It'll hurt."

"Do it!"

She screams as John carefully pushes the baby back in and works to get the cord from around the neck.

A young woman sat a few seats away looks stunned. "Are you.."

John looks up, "Saving the babies life? Yes." He knew that wasn't the question on her mind. Having the best part of a hand inside a strangers vagina wasn't something most people got to see. "Okay, it's free. I need you to really push properly now."

"I was pushing properly earlier!" She pants a few times and pushes.

"Somehow you need to find the strength to push even harder."

A station guard steps into the carriage and looks at the three, "Can you hold on for five minutes, the ambulance crew are coming."

Charlotte screams "NO!" and pushes.

John catches the baby as it slides out. "Wow! That bit of anger did it. That was too easy, sure this was your first?"

"Easy? I think I'd remember going through that pain before!"

John turns her over and pats her on the back until she gasps for air and starts crying, grabs clean underwear from the case and wipes her down. "She's fine. Now to finish helping you. Charles, empty the Maplin bag would you and give it to me."

"Why?"

"The placenta needs to come out. Were you asleep during.."

"Okay, okay, I'll get it!"

Three minutes later John was handing a bag to one of the ambulance crew, "If you could dispose of this."

She feels the weight, guesses what was inside. "The lady said the cord was around the neck?"

"Yeah. It must have been painful."

"How did you know what to do?"

"My kid sister arrived before the ambulance."

Charlotte is wheeled over on a stretcher, "Thank you so much!"

"You're welcome. What are you calling her?"

"Well I'm not calling her Woodside Park that's for sure! What's your name again?"

"Luke."

"We were lucky to have you in the carriage Luke. I'll name her Lucy. Same first two letters."

"Aw, thanks. She's adorable."

"Sure we can't have your photo?"

"I'd rather stay anonymous."

The lady reaches out and squeezes his hand, "Thank you so much."

Charles shakes his hand, "Thanks kid, we owe you one." He slips something into John's shirt pocket.

John goes to object.

"No, really, we owe you a lot, go treat yourself."

"Thanks but I don't need any reward."

"No, but you'll accept it anyway. Put it in a savings account for when you have a kid of your own one day if there's nothing you want to spend it on."

John goes to take it from the pocket.

"Not yet kid. You better get all your stuff together."

"Ah, yes. Lots of washing to do tonight. Still, Lucy was worth it."

He watches Charlotte being wheeled down the platform.

"Excuse me sir?"

He turns, "Hi!"

"If you could get your things, we need to take this one out of service and get it cleaned, get services running again."

"Sure, give me a minute."

He goes to zip up the case and finds the iPad gone. "Fuckers! How could they!"

The member of staff steps onboard, "Problem?"

"Yeah. While I was helping the lady out some shit stole my iPad!"

[Chapter-8](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-8-1)


	8. Chapter 8

He'd got out at Woodside Park and got a cab. He'd build the solar charger another day, it was too late to think about making it tonight.

Denise was shocked to see him in such a mess and thought he'd been in a fight. She got everything but the clothes he stood in into the wash while he showered.

Shower done he picks the dirty clothes off the bathroom floor and the thing Charles had put in his pocket fell out. It was a set of fifty pound notes and business card held together with a silver money clip. He pulls off the clip and reads the card, turns it over. "If you need _anything_ , call me. Sorry for telling you to fuck off, you're a good kid!" He looks at the card again. "Charles Matterson, Architect. Kid. If only he knew."

Dropping the other clothes downstairs the boys come racing up to him. The youngest smiles, "You're a hero!"

"Nah, I just helped someone.."

"You _are_ a hero, the lady on the news says so."

"The news?"

"There's a photo, the lady says a man called Luke helped a lady have a baby!"

Denise grabs the remote and rewinds. "Deliver a baby. Having a baby is usually the other end of the process." They watch a reporter talking to camera, the station in the background. Then up pops an inset photo.

"That's you!"

It's quickly replaced with a photo of Charlotte, Charles and Lucy in a hospital ward.

John smiled, "It was. Thankfully I was looking down at the baby not the camera. And that hand in the background grabbing my iPad. I know exactly which passenger that belongs to."

"You do?"

"He was sat next to the man that gave me hand sanitiser. They were probably all distracted watching Charlotte and I."

"Report him."

"For an old iPad, it's a lot of bother."

"But he might regularly pinch stuff. Even if it keeps him off the tubes for only a few months it's worth it."

"Let me sleep on it. I'm tired, night all. Denise, can I have a quick word?"

His host's eldest son must have laid in bed watching a lot of TV. There was a long metal flexible goose neck fixed to the headboard with a phone holder like you'd see on a selfie stick bolted to the end. He clips the six plus in, twists it into position, puts the headphones on and gets the longest video shared by Mike playing on loop.

He wakes early morning and checks his phone, he hadn't put it on charge. Damn it! 4 percent battery left. He pulls the headphone cable out and pulls it from the holder. There was a voicemail from Cindy, left at 02:12. Probably because she knew he'd be in a deep sleep. He gets up fast and sits on the edge of the bed, listens on speaker.

She was singing the words of But I Did to him. He'd had the headphones around his neck but it wouldn't have been playing while his call to her was active. Was this _their tune_? The call ends with a spoken message. 'Sorry John, it's still too raw. Give me time. Was that you on the news last night? It looked a lot like Luke. You have email. Love _you_ John."

He wiped a tear. Hope. There was hope! "She wants me for my mind not my body. Result I guess."

Standing up he looks in the mirror, strikes a bent up pose. "We swears to serve the master of the precious. We will swear on the...on the precious." He stands straight and turns around, watching his reflection. "I hope Zilla won't mind a good gym membership. This Gollum body has to go!"

There's a creak of a floor board on the other side of the door, "You're not _that_ bad. Breakfast in five. Clean and dry clothes are just outside the door."

"Haha, thanks Denise." He waits for the sound of footsteps on stairs and opens the door and takes a step forward. He's attacked by the boys with a stream of foam bullets. He jumps backwards and the door's quickly slammed shut. "What the _hell_ are those!"

"Nerf N-Strike MEGA Mastodon Blaster!"

"How many of those bullet things can one carry?"

The boys giggle, "LOTS!"

John closes his eyes and thinks about what he'd seen. The clothes had been moved to the right of the door. They were both dressed and ready for school. He surveyed the room. There was nothing that leapt out at him as useful. If he did a dive, tuck and roll while grabbing the clothes he'd end up tumbling down the stairs. Not a good way to test his new abilities.

These weren't real bullets. He opens the door and steps forward, lets the boys empty their now reloaded guns at him.

He looks at the oldest of the two. "Are you done?"

"Yes."

"Good. What's for breakfast?"

"Cereal and toast normally."

"Is today a normal day?"

The boy nods.

"Great. I'll see you downstairs. Pick up all your bullets."

"You can't tell us.."

A head appears around a door frame. "Terry, no being a smart arse. Do as Luke says."

"Yessssss Daaad."

The man smiles, "Name's Brandon, we'll do proper introductions downstairs. Boys, give Luke some space."

At the table Denise passes the milk, "Where'd Gollum memories come from John?"

"Dad's favourite film, we watched it the night before I headed home and.. you know." He looks around the table at the frowning faces, "My name's John Luke. Not Jean-Luc. I don't fly a space ship though it would be rather cool if I did. You can call me by either name."

The youngest boy frowns, "So your last name is Luke?"

"Yes. I guess you're too young for X-Files, wouldn't get Fox William Mulder being called Mulder all the time. Dad's got the box set. I can't think of another example."

"Homer Simpson? Some people call him Simpson."

"They do? A good example then. When I was a kid I spent a lot of time at an American army base in Japan. They use last names a lot the Americans, so I got used to being called Luke more than John."

Brandon moves his bowl and reaches for toast, "The boys tell me you helped deliver a baby last night?

"Yes. That was quite an experience. And a punk rewarded me by stealing my iPad! Are you all familiar with Captain America?"

The boys nod furiously.

"Much as I enjoyed breakfast from tomorrow I'll be making my own. I'm going from this to something more like Capt in two months."

Young Alex gawps, "Wow! Can you, really?"

"With the right food, a lot of exercise and pain, yes."

He shifts excitedly, "Can you come back in two months and show us?"

Denise looks at her husband, "About that.. we didn't get a chance to talk last night. John's going to be staying a while if that's okay with you. He's getting the next generation of NL very soon and Doctor G wants him around for some extended tests."

John takes another slice of toast. "And as your wife has been given the task of running all the tests I've offered to do the same hours to make it easier for her."

Her husband frowns a little at his wife, "He has has he?"

"John's idea not mine."

John reaches for the strawberry jam, "While I'm awake and not having tests or travelling I'll be alternating between two things. Surfing the web looking for clues to a mystery. Or working out in the gym."

Alex gives him a head tilt, "Are you a detective?"

"Not formally. But I'll be doing a _lot_ of detecting."

Brandon stands and puts on his jacket, "I better run before the traffic builds up. What's the mystery?"

"Who killed John Cooper."

[Chapter-9](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-9-1)


	9. Chapter 9

John and Denise did the short walk to High Barnet station. Like many stations this far out from London it wasn't underground. A very light drizzle spoilt the morning.

"Can you email me your shift rota Denise?"

"If you can send me your email address."

"Thanks. I'll do it as soon as we're under cover. Do you think Brandon's going to be alright with everything?"

"As long as you show more interest in being with the boys when you're home than me, sure."

"Ah. I'd not thought of it like that. Not a problem. I'll get myself a gun with those foam bullets in town."

"They're Nerf guns. N e r f."

"Right. Any shops close by that you can recommend?"

"Be a kid again and go crazy in Hamleys on Regent Street."

"Hamleys?"

"You never went there as a kid?"

John taps his head, "Possibly, if so it was lost with the restore. Thanks for the gifts by the way. Speaking and reading Japanese was a nice surprise."

"I thought you'd like that back."

"Back?"

"You held many a conversation with the doctor in Japanese."

"I did?"

"Sure. Your childhood on the base in Japan.."

"That was a story I made up to fill in the blanks."

"No it wasn't."

John taps in with his Oyster but doesn't go past. "It wasn't?"

"We didn't add it. But if you do your research I think you'll find it was in there."

John catches her up. "How could it have gotten in there? I didn't talk to Mum or Dad about our time out there."

"You spent a few days with your parents."

"Days but.."

"Take a seat a minute and close your eyes."

He steps onboard the waiting train, takes a seat. "Okay?"

"Let the lace help you. Picture yourself in the room you spent the most time in with your parents."

"The living room. I'm there."

"Look around you in your mind. What do you see?"

John starts laughing, "Aha!"

"Do tell!"

"A black and white photo of Dad with his team. A photo of the three of us in front of Mount Fuji! I need to see my parents again."

"They know you're dead."

John opens his eyes and turns to see her.

"Sorry. We were told they identified your body. Maybe they've got your things."

"If they are I'm definitely seeing them."

"Is that a good idea."

"Not as me. As John's friend John Luke."

"I'd give them a while, they'll still be grieving."

"True. Heartless as it may sound my gut feeling is that makes it the ideal time. They'll want to talk about all the good times with their son."

"I hope for everyone's sake you're right."

John nods. "Thanks. I'll see you to the office and go pay them a visit. Then Hamleys in the afternoon. Case building in the evening."

"Case building?"

"I won't need it for a while yet, I'm sticking solar panels on my luggage bag for when I go hunting."

"Hunting?"

"The killers of Cindy Bexley and John Cooper."

"Isn't that a job for the police?"

"We have a great police force, but they're understaffed and overstretched. If they made an arrest and stopped, didn't get whoever is behind it nobody's safe. I want whoever's at the top of the pile."

His phone chimes. "Excuse me a second."

A photo comment on his Instagram post had arrived.

Denise watched him for a while. "Everything okay?"

"No."

"What's up?"

John breathed out slowly, trying to hold it together. "Cindy's not told her daughter Sam yet. She thinks I'm still alive."

"You are. Just in.." another passenger steps onboard. "You know."

"You think she's told her?" Another notification comes on the screen. "She's followed me."

"Follow her back."

"Okay." He does so.

They both stare at the phone as the train pulls out of the station to make the journey south.

Bing.

Denise leans forward so she can't see the phone, crosses fingers out of sight of John. "A new message?"

"Yeah."

"Good news or bad?"

"Good."

She sits back. "What does it say?"

"Hi JC! New you, new account. Post a selfie not just things with Mum."

He looks at his distorted reflection in the glass on the other side of the carriage. "Not yet."

Denise puts a hand on his knee. "Make it part of your challenge. You said two months. Make it 62 Days of John Luke. Post a selfie a day so people can track your progress."

"I don't think anyone will be interested in seeing photos of me like this."

"Maybe not at first, but as things start to take shape.. Six Pack John you'd said. And you need a job. It might take you years to become a lecturer, assuming you want to. A fitness and health trainer, you could do that way faster."

"And earn money how?"

"Have you seen the program Doctor in the house?"

John taps his head and flicks fingers, a sign to say memories gone.

"A doctor lives with a family for a while, helps them get medical issues sorted out. Some people could do with the same for diet and exercise."

"I guess I could. And there's nothing to stop me doing a number of part time jobs. I can't sponge of the Doctor forever."

"You're not sponging. He genuinely is paying you back."

"How come you live so far north? Is it because he pays himself well and the team a fraction?"

She looks hurt. "No! We're paid very well, considering the jobs we do. Brandon and I agreed we'd save every penny we could so the boys don't get held down by tens of thousands of pounds of student debt. Three boys through university doesn't come cheap."

"I suppose so. But how did he fund the restaurant?"

Denise laughs, "His society has many members, he was one of fifty something. He'd love to have done it all himself. In his dreams."

"Have you been there?"

"Stunning isn't it."

"Absolutely!"

"I don't want to appear rude but I usually catnap for a while."

"Don't let me stop you. I've got an email from Cindy to read."

[Chapter-10](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-10-1)


	10. Chapter 10

John paired his phone with the lace and focused his mind. Shutter button. It fired. "Wow!" He recalled the morph suit worn by one of the girls at the rave, all covered in LED. The things you could do if you linked lights to lace.

He replies to her email:

Thanks Cindy! My 62 day Capt America transformation starts soon. Love JC.

He grins and backspaces, replaces JC with Juicy. Then backspaces and puts the JC back.

A deep breath taken he crosses the road and knocks on the door.

His mother answers. "Hello."

"Hi! I'm a friend of John's. A friend of ours got me your address, I'm desperately trying to get in touch with him about university matters."

"Come in dear."

John saw sadness in her eyes, so wanted to give her a hug there and then. He steps inside the familiar hall.

"He's through here, you can say hello."

What? Had someone stolen his identity so completely even his parents had been fooled?

She leads him into the lounge and motions to a sofa, "Take a seat."

He does so. "Where is he?"

She steps to the fireplace, picks up a large urn, turns and places it on the coffee table. "Right here. You can talk to him all you want, he just won't answer back."

He sat there in silence for minutes, mind reeling from the shock. This was a curve ball he'd not anticipated.

"We all agreed before the accident that no parent should ever have to bury their child. So we didn't. We kept him with us."

"He's.."

"In there. Yes. An accident took our oldest from us."

John frowns, "Your oldest?"

"His sister is devastated."

"He's got a sister?"

"Many years younger."

John looked around the room, didn't see any photos. Damn this partial backup. "He never mentioned a sister?"

"She's young enough to be his daughter, just. He always felt guilty about her."

"Guilty?"

"He assisted with the delivery when the ambulance couldn't get to me on time. The cord was around her neck. She lived but has brain damage. We'd always put the photos away as it hurt him so much to see them. It wasn't his fault bit he blamed himself."

Tears rolled down John's face. Missing memories was one thing. Having suppressed ones like this brought up to the surface so painfully was something totally different. The story he thought he'd made up when saving Lucy had it's roots in reality. "Can I see a photo?"

"Of course. Would you like a tissue?"

"Please."

She goes to a low side cupboard and opens the door, takes out some framed photos. "Her father is with her at the moment, they should be back in a couple of hours." She hands them over.

"Oh my lord. She's beautiful."

"Yes. Mental age of a five year old. She needs constant supervision. My husband and I are getting too old to cope."

John looks up at his mother, "You don't look that old?"

"Bad hips for me, early onset dementia for him. It's not the best of combinations."

"Since when?"

She steps to a draw and gets tissues. "My hips? A few months, he was diagnosed only days ago. You said you needed John for university matters?"

"Yes. It doesn't matter now. I also had some photos and video of him and Ruby at a party, hoped to get his photos. Never mind."

"You have photos? May I see?"

"Um.. sure." He gets his phone out and hands it over, photo album open. "My old phone was broken, I only bothered to restore these quickly as I was popping over."

She looks through them. "This is Ruby."

"Yes. He really loves, loved, her."

"I suspect he's got photos on his phone, we've got no way of getting them off it."

"Password recovery?"

"I'm not technical, wouldn't know where to start."

"I could help?"

"I'll get the box with his things."

Fifteen minutes later he got a MMS from Mike confirming he still had the originals of the videos and photos. His second hand phone was about to be wiped and assume the identity of his old one.

"Would you like some tea dear?"

"Yes please, white without."

"That's how John had it."

"We had a few things in common."

"You did?"

"Same first names for one. I'm John Luke by the way. We both knew Ruby. We met through her. We were in the student bar on a busy night when she called out John, we both went to help her with a tray of drinks."

"How sweet. Can I leave you with that while I put the kettle on or will you need me for something?"

"Sure. Maybe it's not my business but John did say you're far too trusting." He got up to follow her into the kitchen. "You don't know me from Jack. I could be a robber, a.."

"Shhh." She put a hand on his shoulder. "Do many people call you by your last name?"

"Lots why?"

"You have another thing in common with my son."

"I do?"

"Think about if for a moment while we make some tea."

John put a splash of milk in the tea and smiled at his mother. "Can you give me a clue?"

"I could give you a name and you'd know instantly. How to give you a hint.. Er.. North."

"North? Of here?"

"No dear, the city."

"North of the city. There's a lot north of the city."

"Trains."

"Lots of those too."

"Helping others."

"Ah. You watched the news last night."

"Saving a life like that takes guts at your age. You acted quickly just like my John." A cat jumps up onto the work surface. "Get down girl! I wish I had a kind soul like yours to look after Jasmine for us."

"Your cat's called Jasmine?"

She laughs, "No! Our daughter."

"Oh. Sorry. I'd love a sister. There's only me."

"You're not at home with your parents?"

"No. I wish I were." He wipes a tear.

"Lets go finish the phone thingamajig."

They sit at the table again.

"Why do you need to use both?"

"I know John's email, we sent each other messages using it. I don't know the password. Or the phone pin. I can ask Apple for a reset code to be sent to his known phone number. If he's got notifications set to display on the phone we'll see it on screen without having to unlock it."

"That's clever."

"It is." A few seconds later a message pops up saying a new device was trying to use the Apple ID. "Blast. It wants the phone unlocked to see it."

His mother picks up the phone and unlocks it, puts it back on the table.

John bursts out laughing. "Lesson learnt. Don't assume, ask. That's the second time in two days I've made that mistake. I thought you didn't know his pin?"

"I didn't. A number just popped into my head. An educated rather than lucky guess."

He goes through the motions to reset the password on both phones.

"Do you need to do that now?"

"I suppose I don't." He hesitates. "If you're okay with it I wouldn't mind checking his last few emails, see if he sent a response to the university chancellor for me?"

"The matter you came here for?"

"Yes."

"Go on then. It can't do him any harm now."

"Thanks. Have the police made any progress?"

"Progress?"

"With their investigations?"

"About what?"

John reset the account password. "The crash."

"What crash?"

He looked up, massively confused and concerned. "What were you told about his death? At uni they're saying he was in a car crash."

"Oh no dear. They said he fell down the stairs at home when we were away on holiday. Whoever is spreading such lies?"

John stares blankly.

"Don't let your tea go cold."

John scrolled through photos. "Being the one to offer to take photos at parties I'm always behind the lens. He'd sent the email I needed sent. I can wipe my one now."

"Okay dear."

He does just that. "It takes ages." He could use iCloud to start getting it all back again the moment he stepped outside.

"Does that little line have to go all the way to the other side?"

"Yup. The better the phone the longer it takes. Sorry."

His jacket is being zipped up as they hear the front door open.

His mother smiles, "They're home early!"

John's stomach knotted. "I should go."

"Nonsense. Say hello. He'd love to see the young man he saw on the telly. Did you report your iPad theft?"

"Sorry?"

"My husband paused the TV, we've got a hard disc thingamajig. He reasoned that it was your case just behind you, your clothes on the floor. He's getting forgetful but is otherwise still sharp as a tac."

Jasmine smiled at him, stepped right up to him and wrapped her arms around him. He fought back tears and after a few seconds hugged her back.

"What's you're name?"

His heart hurt. "John. Like your brother. Although some call me by my last name, Luke."

His father beams, "By George! You're the lad on the telly last night!"

"I am sir."

His sister holds him by the arms, "Daddy said a Luke helped a little baby."

"I did."

She hugs him again, "I like you."

"I like you too."

[Chapter-11](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-11-1)


	11. Chapter 11

In Hamleys he looked for a big Nerf gun like the brother's. He also found some toys for Jasmine. His mother had asked where he lived, he'd lied and said he was renting a flat. His father had whistled and commented on London prices. She'd only gone and offered him his old room in return for some housekeeping!

He'd accepted, said that he'd need to give his landlord notice and get his things together. He'd be back in a few weeks. He'd have to explain things to Denise and her family. Somehow.

His phone chimed. Another MMS with photos sent from Mike. Then there was a text message asking him to go to a file sharing site when on WiFi to get the videos.

Then as he's reading the text a reply appears:

My son has passed away. Please stop sending to this account.

Shit. "Sorry Mum!" He quickly resets the password so it would only work on his phone. The pin would still work, his mother could look at the photos. It would just fail to get emails or messages. And pop up alerts about settings being wrong. Shit shit shit. He went to the counter with his selection and paid.

He needed a way to back everything up, then put the password back, then restore all the files to his new account. He needed an Apple expert.

In the Apple store he looked a little embarrassed as the guru raised an eyebrow at his photo album. He'd taken some racy photos of Ruby, didn't have the heart to delete them from the phone his mother was holding. He certainly didn't want them gone from the iCloud.

"You want to keep all these but change iCloud account. Why?"

"I get too many phishing attempts. Someone's after my data after my old phone was stolen at an accident. I got that one from CEX yesterday."

"John Cooper to John Luke. Do you have some ID?"

"No, it was all stolen when I had the accident."

"A utility bill would do."

"All in my father's name."

"Gym membership, driving license, library card? You must have _something_ that shows who you are."

"All of my cards were in my wallet. I don't have it anymore."

"Then I'm afraid I can't help you."

"Really?"

"We've had a lot of identity theft attempts, the manager's cracking down on us being tricked into helping. Sorry."

"But they're my photos! Photos I took of my friends!"

"Come back when you can prove it and I'll be more than happy to help."

"There's got to be an easier way." He takes back the phone, picks up his shopping. "Thanks for your time."

As he's leaving the store a teenager follows him out.

She steps ahead a bit and turns to see him. "Hi!"

"Hello?"

"I had your problem too."

John stops. "How did you fix it?"

"I used a WiFi transfer app to send them to an old phone, changed account then sent them back."

"I had an iPad I could have done that with until someone stole it yesterday."

"That sucks."

"Yes."

"You could transfer them to me?"

"Some need to stay private."

"How about a really crappy second hand one if you only need it to transfer the data for a bit?"

"Um.. I guess. Thanks. WiFi transfer app?"

"It's about three pounds. Let me check a second.. um.. the one I used is called Image Transfer."

John looks at her screen, "An orange icon, thanks."

"No probs. The man in the store said John Luke. You look like the Luke on the TV last night. Was that you?"

"Um.."

"I knew it!" She lowers her phone and gives him a peck on the cheek. "You're a hero! Can I have a photo with you?"

If he was going to follow the advice from Denise maybe a bit of publicity for John Luke wouldn't hurt? But what would Luke's parents think? Seeing him up and walking again might be a bit of a shocker. Sam had accepted Ruby, as had her father by the sounds of it. That didn't mean others would.

"Needs a lot of thought does it?"

"Sorry! Off with the fairies as Mum would say. Sure, why not." No pain no gain. Better to try and fail than to not try at all as his father would say.

She stands beside him and puts an arm over his shoulder, puts her face against his and gives him a sideways kiss as she snaps a photo.

John blushes a bit. "You're cute."

"Thanks." She starts a post in Instagram, types away.

"What are you writing?"

"I'm tagging it. Hash John Luke and others."

John watches her send it, gets his own phone out and searches, taps the heart and follows her. "It's a new account, nothing in there of me yet, just some friends."

"Regrann mine then."

"Sorry?"

"Can I have your phone a second?" She puts her bag on the floor.

"Sure."

He watches her go to the App store, ask to download an app. "Stick your password in."

She then goes to the Notification screen, taps, switches to Instagram, taps, taps on a menu, taps the home button, swipes, taps and goes back to Instagram. "There. Just add your text. I'm Kate."

"Thanks Kate." He types and sends. "Can you run through that again but much slower?"

"Sure." She takes a selfie, posts it, shows him step by step. "Got it?"

"Got it."

"Got a girlfriend?"

"Yes."

She sighs, "Oh well. It was worth a try."

John frowns, "You wanted to.." he moves lightning fast as a hand goes to grab her bag, gets a teen on the floor flat on his back. "Don't be an arsehole. Steeling isn't nice. Kate, any store security or police in sight?"

"Yes, I'll go get him."

With the lad being taken away Kate gives him another peck. "Can I have your phone number?"

"Why?"

"I want you to come to my party. Bring your girlfriend."

"Why would you.."

"Your reward for saving my bag. You're a real Clark Kent aren't you."

"Who?"

"Are you kidding me? Everyone knows who he is."

"Sorry. Partial amnesia. I might have known once, forgotten."

"Clark is his fake identity."

"Right. Who's?"

"He's really Superman."

"Superman?"

"Oh jeez. One second." She taps away. "This guy." She turns her phone to face him as a video plays.

"Right. Superman. And I'm super skinny. Give me a couple of months."

"Why?"

"I plan to get fit fast."

Kate changes back to Instagram, follows. "Now that I want to see."

"Really?"

"My Dad watches all these adverts on the shopping channel and says they're fake, nobody can get that buff that fast."

Denise smiles as he fights his way through the door into reception. "You found some then."

"You'll have to point out any breakables when we get back tonight. Your lads are going to get a surprise. I got one for Brandon so he can join in."

"Oh dear. It's going to be carnage." She winks. "Did you pop into your parents?"

"Yes. And met my sister."

"Sister? You have a sister?"

"It was a shock to me too. Is he about or in surgery?"

"He's just talking to the alarm people, he won't be long. How old is your sister?"

"Physically or mentally?"

She frowns hard, "Both?"

"A teenager with the mind of a five year old. It turns out my actions last night were an echo of the past. Only with my sister it wasn't quite fast enough."

"Oh my dear God, I'm so sorry John!"

He shrugs, "Mum stressed it wasn't my fault. I'd been blaming myself ever since."

"You know it wasn't now right?"

"Yes. It doesn't make it any less painful."

"The pain will fade with time."

"On the subject of seeing my parents, I was asked where I lived, I said I rented a flat in London, Mum offered me my old room in return for housekeeping. I think they need help with my sister."

"Oh. The boys will be sad to see you go, but you're better off with them."

"I'll not do it until you've had your lace fitted."

"My lace? Who said anything about me having lace.. Oh. What's he plotting now?"

"Plotting? No plots, just being able to help keep key staff safe."

"Minds not bodies."

"Both. Plans A, B and C."

She frowns.

"CCTV, physical security, the safe room and if the worse were to happen.."

"I come back in someone else's body? No thanks."

"What if you got amnesia? For real not pretend like me. You could have your memories pushed back."

"No. What really annoys me is that he's spoken to you about it before even a single word to me! He can be so bloody arrogant!"

"I don't think it's that, I think he genuinely doesn't want to see you go."

Denise grabs her jacket. "In which case he needs to talk to people."

"Are you going?"

"There's nobody in recovery, he's going to be ages. I'm going to grab some food. Want to come?"

"Sure."

"Leave the bags behind the desk, they'll be fine there."

[Chapter-12](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-12-1)


	12. Chapter 12

On the street Denise looks around, "I'm hungry. Fancy sharing something from Benito's Hat?"

"You can't manage a whole one?"

"Not if I want to keep these curves under control and have a full dinner at home."

"Haha. Maybe _your_ family should be my first Hunk in the House test case?"

"Hunk eh?"

"You'll see. I can fix this body I think. The face, that's not so easy."

She stops and turns. "Time for a reality check. You can grow your hair out, dye it another colour, get a fake or real tan, change shape a little with all the pulling faces from strenuous exercise but unless you want to go batshit crazy and do a Michael Jackson there's _no way_ you're looking like John Cooper again." She takes a good breath.

"Who?"

"Oh for Pete's sake! Give me your phone. Unlocked."

He does so.

She taps and swipes away, holds buttons.

"What are you doing?"

"Taking screen shots." She holds the phone so he can't see. "Okay, this is before. Swipe to the next image to see after." It's handed back.

"Okay, good looking kid.. HOLY FUCK! This is the same person?"

"Yup. He had his skull remodelled."

"That's insane!"

"He must have got addicted to pain killers after that is all I can say.."

"So it would be possible to look a little closer to John.."

She slaps his cheeks lightly with both hands. "Grow to love the skin you're in! Don't go chopping things up. People have _died_ on the operating table because of complications from surgery that wasn't strictly needed. And before you say a word, no, we don't have a freezer full of spare bodies."

"Unless.."

"Did he tell you that the other lady we have has no feet?"

"No?"

"She lost them in the accident that put her into a coma."

"Oh. Poor woman."

"Or that she's sixty something?"

"Noted."

She walks on. "Hungry?"

"Sure. Mind if we pop into CEX first? Then I can sort out something quick while we eat."

"Okay."

The manager spots him entering. "Luke! Our TV celeb!"

He sighs, "Hello."

"Was that your iPad being lifted?"

"Yeah, what a wanker. If I see him again.."

"You know who did it?"

"Yes. Hopefully he'll keep clear of the Northern Line."

"Think you could take him on do you? You don't exactly look.."

"Like Superman? No, I don't look the part. I could get you on the floor before you could say iPad theft though."

The manager burst out laughing, slaps the counter repeatedly, "You're such a character Luke. What you did for that woman was good but that doesn't make you a superhero, only a hero."

"Got Instagram?"

"Sure."

"Look for the hashtag John Luke."

"If you say.. she's nice." He reads. "So you stopped someone taking her bag. Still no superhero. Sorry."

Denise folds her arms. "You underestimate my friend."

"Lady I go to the gym and work out. Luke here.. I'll not insult the lad with words."

"I think you just did."

"Tell you what. If he can get me on the floor in sixty seconds I'll _give_ him a replacement iPad. On me. A good one too."

She grins, "iPad Pro?"

"The big one. He's not winning. Not a chance in hell."

Denise smiles, "Where's the softest part of the floor? I'm a nurse, wouldn't want to be treating you for a head injury in a few minutes."

"Right, very good, tease and intimidation."

"Nothing of the sort, I just don't want to see you hurt."

John steps to the counter and talks in a near whisper, "Listen, I'll buy a low end iPad again, I don't want to cause a scene."

"A scene? I've not had a good laugh in ages." He goes to the shelves, gets the iPad. "Come on."

"No, really. I don't want to risk hurting you or embarrassing you in front of your staff. Japanese are all about honour." John does the most serious stare he can.

"Japanese? You did say something yesterday. Skilled in the arts?"

"Name one, the answer will be yes."

"Tell you what. You pay for a grade A standard iPad, I'll make up the difference. Trust me, you'll like the hardware."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because I can. Just as you did because you could yesterday."

"Even still.."

"Let me have a photo with you and the iPad, I can use it for publicity."

"Give me a minute, Denise, can I have a word?"

He leads her outside. "Luke's family, did they leave any contact details?"

"No, why?"

"If they've not had the shock of seeing me on the news they'll soon see me if people keep wanting to take photos. I want them to know their son is doing good."

"You don't want to be John Cooper anymore?"

"I want to be both. I want to do a Cindy, Ruby. Pick the best of both personalities. Assuming Luke did something good before he overdosed."

"I'll make some calls when we're back."

"Thanks. I'm saying yes to the photo then. If he wants to part with a good iPad let him. Your sons will love it."

"What?"

"I got given a bigger phone, I don't really need an iPad now once I've transferred my photos. Everyone wins."

Twenty minutes later Jeff had his photo, was happy, Denise ate her late lunch and scribbled with the pen.

John watched in amazement, "I thought it was just a much bigger screen, I didn't know you could draw on it. Which of your sons is the more artistic?"

"Terry definitely, but you can't give him this John, it's too much."

"In which case I won't. I'll tell him that it's a long term loan. He's to look after it well until I ask for it back in a few months. Or years. By which time I hope I could buy the latest and greatest for myself."

Denise taps the colour pallet and the thicker pen width and draws a big smilie face. "He'll love it, thanks."

"Smile then."

"Sorry. I'm still annoyed about the lace thing. I don't want a cable hanging off the back of my head."

"You wouldn't. He's getting in the Japanese one he has. For all of you."

Denise drops the pen and sits mouth open for a few seconds. "He is?"

"He is."

"Bloody hell. Do you know how much they'll cost?"

"He said they're not in production yet."

"It doesn't mean they've not set a price! They're for the super rich. He only got one because he's going to be fitting them for clients. Brandon did some searches. You could get a Bently Continental GTC V8 S for that much. Same price."

"I have no idea what that is."

"One hundred and fifty thousand pounds of supercar?"

" _What_! That's _crazy_ , how do they justify a price like that?"

"They want it to be exclusive to high end clients. And it's a good design. Ask the doctor to unbutton his shirt."

"He said you wear it like a girdle."

"Not a bad description I guess. But it's narrower, sits on the top of the hips. He says it doesn't restrict movement at all."

"I wonder what they make them from?"

"Woven carbon fibre and electronics." She finishes her lunch and wipes her mouth. "Shall we head back?"

[Chapter-13](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-13-1)


	13. Chapter 13

John let Denise take the empty seat and puts his many bags on the floor. "Nap if you want, I'll be reading, I'll wake you up when we're at Woodside Park."

"Thanks."

There was no point trying to hold a conversation with one person sat and the other standing in a busy train. He'd quickly popped into the nearest gym to see what they had to offer then returned to the hospital. They'd both had an interesting afternoon with the doctor. With no patients left in recovery that afternoon he'd taken off his shirt and allowed them to study his small Neural Lace scar, the socket on his rib and the compute module. It couldn't be called a block, that was for sure. It reminded him a little of a Slendertone Abs device he'd seen the gym receptionist wearing.

He opened the PDF document he'd downloaded earlier and read up on the design. The head end looked to be quite standard. The connection cable had a set of thin conductors in a helical arrangement allowing it to flex and stretch way more than a standard cable. The real difference was in the module. It was so thin! Rather than have a small number of bulky batteries they'd gone for a large number of tiny cells distributed around the band. They were kept away from the hip bones to avoid crush damage. What he suspected was a bad translation said they'd had thousands of people wear belts that had sensors not batteries in order to work out where the safest locations were. They probably meant dozens.

Out of the corner of his eye he sees movement and turns to look. Snap. Oh dear. This was becoming a thing. He smiled at the man and went back to his reading.

The compute band had the same main storage capacity as his new block, slightly faster processor power and four times the code storage. He chuckled to himself as he read another bad translation that thanked Alliance member Bexley for his input on code storage. Whichever body she'd been in, Cindy or Ruby, there was no way you could mistake her for a man. The page was pinch zoomed and screen shot.

Then things got more interesting. They talked about ideas that looked like Cindy's work. While recuperating at his parents post surgery and pre crash his father had asked how things were going with their research. Knowing his father wouldn't pass things on he'd told him about all of the fun they'd had linking the block to electronics to control things, playing with the students, the plans for the morph suit. He'd gone on to share information that was known only to the two of them. This meant one of a number of things. 1. His office was bugged. 2. Cindy's account had been hacked. Or 3 his crash had been deliberate in order to get his block and pull the data. Had the thief then sold the information on or had it all been done by the very firm supplying the new hardware?

The train slows and stops at East Finchley. A few passengers get off. He hears the doors closing.

"There he is!"

He turns to see a woman kick her foot out and prevent the doors from closing.

The doors open and she jumps on, turns and screams. "HURRY UP!"

Just as the doors are closing again a man with outside broadcast camera jumps on, hands her a microphone.

John moans. "Of for fuck's sake." He pops his jacket collar to hide the wire, taps Denise's leg with his. "Wakey wakey."

Denise stirs, "There already?"

"No. We've got company, check your phone for messages." He turns his back to the reporter and thinks. Thinks hard about what he'd seen in Cindy's email.

Seconds later Denise sees a message. She frowns, glances up, smiles and looks sideways. After a few more seconds she looks back at her phone and types.

John feels his phone vibrate in his pocket. He concentrated again, then turned and smiled at the reporter. "Hello."

"I'm live with Luke, the Northern Line hero who saved.."

John was shaking his head, "You're not."

"We are."

"I think you should check with your camera man."

She frowns and turns, "We're live right?"

"The feeds gone offline."

"Get it back then!"

"I'm trying! One second.. it's connecting.. okay." He raises the camera again. "Go."

"I'm live with Luke, the Northern Line hero who.."

"Sorry, check again?"

She frowns and turns, "Live or not?"

"Sorry, not."

She stamps a foot, "What are you playing at!"

"Me? Nothing! Don't blame me for faulty hardware!"

She shoves the microphone into his jacket and storms off down the carriage.

The cameraman lowers the camera, "Sorry about that, the queen bitch didn't get her coffee fix. We've been here a while hoping to catch you."

John nods, "All she needed to do was be polite, introduce herself, tell me what her plans were. Launching straight into a live broadcast? No thanks."

"All we'd like is a few seconds of your time to say thank you on behalf of the Matterson family for your actions yesterday. Lucy is doing well."

John feels tears welling up. If only his sister had the same outcome. "Are you always behind the lens?"

"Me? Um.. I've been trained, never done it for real."

"How'd you like your first time to be the scoop on me? I'm sure my friend Denise can hold a camera steady."

"The link keeps dropping."

"It won't with the queen at a distance."

"Okay?"

"Mind if we do it at the end of the line? We can stand on the platform, have the train in the background."

"That would be great, thanks. I'm John."

"So am I!"

"I thought your name is Luke?"

"John Luke. Not the starship one. Many of my friends call me Luke."

"Ah, I see. Mind if we sit down? I've been on my feet for hours."

"Not at all."

[Chapter-14](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-14-1)


	14. Chapter 14

They'd sat in the train for a few minutes, were now on the platform. Cameraman John sat on the wood slat and metal seat and moved his toes through circles in the air, shoes off. "Man that feels good. Queen B's storming off was disgraceful, so sorry you had to see that."

John smiles, "Don't worry, I've seen far worse. Got your interview straight in your head?"

"Short as it is, yes."

"Good. Want to practice again Denise?"

"I think I've got it."

"Shall we then?"

John gets up and slips his shoes on, turns on the camera and microphone, makes a call on his mobile. "Hi, it's John, if you still have the slot I'm ready. Two? Brilliant. I'll keep the line open." He pulls knotted earbuds from a pocket. "Bloody things!"

Denise puts a hand out, "Let me. I've got two sons who constantly tangle theirs."

"Thanks."

Denise worked fast, looked like she was working on a logic puzzle.

John yawns. "One minute forty."

"John Luke, shush." She keeps fingers busy and shakes an end. The plug end is threaded. 

"One minute thirty."

"I'll Nerf you if you don't stop counting."

"One minute twenty five."

"Luke!"

He chuckles, "We do have two guns here."

"Shush! Let me concentrate!" She threads the plug through the big knot in several places, holds it between finger and thumb and shakes it hard. It unravels. "Ta-da."

John plugs it into his phone and pops the ear-bud with microphone in. "Time studio? Okay, let us know when..." His expression changes, "They've lost their other feed! We're live in five.. four.. three.. Hi, I'm here at the end of the Northern Line with John Luke, the young man that helped the Matterson family last night. On behalf of Charlotte and Charles who've been in touch with the studio we'd like to thank you for your selfless action that saved baby Lucy."

"Thanks."

"How did you know what to do?"

"My parents will be surprised to learn what I'd really been doing on the Internet. Thanks to an incident in my teens I'd been teaching myself how to be a doctor from the age of fourteen."

"Well your knowledge certainly helped. Any advice to the general public?"

"Do a basic first aid course. You might save a life."

"Any message to your parents?"

"Hi! Sorry for how things turned out on the beach. I've got partial amnesia now. I _think_ my name is John Luke, Luke to friends. If you see this please get in touch with the studio."

"And a message for any younger viewers that may be watching?"

"Don't mess with drugs. I'm told I was pronounced dead after being in a coma for a very long time. Thankfully a doctor who specialises in Neural Lace and brain surgery managed to get me out of the coma. Just in time to save Lucy."

"Any last words before we hand back to the studio?"

"A big Hello to Ruby, my new fan Kate and friend Jasmine."

Denise steps sideways and turns to pan the camera as practiced.

"This has been John Downes with John Luke, back to you in the studio.. and we're off." He slides the switch on the radio microphone and pockets it, pulls the earbud. "Thanks guys!"

Denise lowers the camera. "Gosh this thing's heavy."

"It's all the battery modules that do it. Thanks for doing that. That's me done for the day. Can you send me your number?"

John airdrops it. "Done."

"Thanks."

The beeping to say the doors would close starts.

Denise hands him the camera, "You better run or you'll be waiting a while for the next one."

"Thanks! I'll pass your number onto the studio switchboard." He turns and runs the short distance to the train.

They wait and wave goodbye.

Denise picks up her bag, "You're so getting Nerfed when we get home. Was that you messing with the camera?"

"It's got a Bluetooth remote feature. They'd not changed the default connection pin from 0000."

"Why would a camera have one of those?"

"So you can do one person reports with it on a stand."

"Oh. Cut the workforce in half."

"Hmm." John picks up all his bags, "Five people, four Nerf guns. Who doesn't get to use one?"

"Brandon."

"Really?"

"Terry and I are going to teach you that shush means shush."

"I can't wait."

As they walk towards the house John turns to look at Denise, "Any ideas how I can raise enough money to get another one of the Japanese Neural Lace?"

"Why if he's getting you one?"

"Not for me, for my sister."

"Why if she's got the mental age of a five year old?"

"For that reason. If I can do things like think of the time and have it answer maybe it can help her get past five? Zilla is the brain expert, if anyone can understand what mechanism is holding her back he would."

"Maybe, maybe not."

"No?"

"Cindy would be better."

"I love her but I don't think.."

"John!"

"What?"

"Doctor Cindy Bexley, her research to map the processes of the brain, if it wasn't for her lace wouldn't be what it is today."

He stops momentarily. "Really? She's that good?"

"Better than good, the best. World leader best."

"Bollocks. I remember her mostly from non-work related things. And she doesn't really want to talk to me."

"Give her time John. She's still got to get over the shock."

"What if she never does?"

"Then your sister will most likely stay locked in at five. Don't underestimate a five year old, they're no babies."

"They're not adults either. Not by miles. She deserves to be able to grow up and gain some independence."

"You didn't think of this before?"

"If I did you didn't restore it."

"Right. That trick you did with the message, is that easy?"

"Once you know how, yes."

"What else could you use it for?"

"Telling a device to change the channel on the TV, thinking letters rather than typing them, the possibilities are practically endless."

"If old B movie man wants to pay that much money to give me those abilities.. I might just accept. The TV changing device, is it expensive?"

"I'm not aware of one existing yet. But it will."

[Chapter-15](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-15-1)


	15. Chapter 15

Terry looked up from his homework as large bags were placed on the table. "What's in those?"

John smiled, "Somethings for a war, and something I'm going to be lending you."

Denise enters the room, "Keep your bum on that chair! Focus on the task in hand."

"It's only math questions."

"Only?"

"I can pick up where I left off. What did you get from CEX?"

"Finish your maths and you can see."

"But Mum.."

"Butt, chair. Now!"

"Yes Mum."

"Where's your brother?"

"Dunno."

"ALEX!" She waits patiently for an answer. "Alex! Get here now or you'll be the one missing out on Nerf war!"

A head pops up from behind the sofa. "I'm here! I'm here!"

"What're you doing behind there?"

"Playing."

"Done your homework?"

"Yes."

"Show me."

Denise looked through the pages, "Is this all they set you?"

"Yes?"

"Alex."

"Yes! A drawing for English and times tables for maths."

"Okay. Go change, I'm not having you roll about nerfing in your school uniform."

"Okay."

Terry stands.

"Butt, chair."

"But, finished."

"Go on then. And tell Alex not to pick clean stuff from his cupboard, he can wear the things he wore yesterday."

"K Mum."

John starts unpacking as Terry races upstairs to pass the message on. "A drawing for English?"

"The teacher's trying something new. She writes a complex paragraph and they do a drawing to show they've comprehended it."

"She's testing their reading without them having to say or write a word? Hmm."

"You could use it on your sister to judge her true mental age."

"Exactly what I was thinking." A couple of packets of batteries are ripped open and a Nerf gun battery compartment undone.

"They sold you a screwdriver too?"

"The lady at Hamleys said I'd need one."

"That was nice of her. You should have seen the tears when we first got ours and couldn't open the blasted things."

The four large batteries inserted John does the screws back up. "There's spare bullets in the bottom of the bag, slip some in a pocket. If you load this one up I'll get batteries in the next one."

Denise reaches into the bag and pulls out bullets and another much smaller bag. "What's in this one?"

John blushes a little. "Budgie smugglers."

Denise laughs. "Hunk makeover photos start.."

"Tonight."

"Do it in the morning. You'll have better light, you can get your breakfast in the shot."

"How?"

The boys come racing down the stairs.

"Terry, show John how you do your images with multiple photos."

"Diptic. It's easy."

John pulls his phone out and unlocks it. "Can you download it?"

"Sure."

Terry downloads the small app, passing it back for a second for the app store password and opens it. "You pick a frame layout.."

"Shame there isn't one with a vertical on the left, three small horizontal ones on the right."

Terry swipes to a second page of layouts. "Like that?"

"Yeah. Then what?"

"You tap each one to load a picture. Who's _she_!"

John quickly takes his phone back. "A girl I know."

"Corr, she's fit!"

Denise clips him around the ear. "Oi! What did I say the other day.."

"She's a very attractive lady."

John does up the screws on the second gun. "She's got the best smile. Right lads. Your mother has decreed that she and Terry are to be in Team A. Alex, you and I are Team B."

Alex frowns, "I should be team A. It's A for Alex."

"It's Arse holes vs Butt cheeks." He grins at the now gawping Denise, "I'm still a kid, give me some slack!"

Denise turns on and raises her gun. "If I'm an arse hole why would I do that?" She grins and pulls the trigger.

The boys race to the conservatory and lift the lid on their toy chest as John frantically loads bullets into his gun.

Alex comes racing back, "Mum! You're in our starting place! Five, four, three.."

Denise turns and runs to the conservatory.

"What's your strategy Alex?"

"My what?"

"What's the best way to get them and not get hit ourselves?"

"Oh that. Sofas?"

"Risky, you could get trapped with nowhere to run. How many ways are there into the.. the.. the room they're in?"

"Are you okay?"

"Just an unexpected gap in my dictionary. What's the room they're in?"

"Conservatory?"

"Okay. Conservatory."

"Two. The other one's through the kitchen."

"Okay. One of us sneaks around and shoots them from the kitchen."

"I'll go."

"Not yet! Get by the door, I'll draw their fire. When they start shooting at me then you go. Quiet as a mouse."

"Okay."

Denise stood with her back to the wall and signalled to her son. They flipped switches and the motor in each gun spun up. She span and dropped low while Terry span and stood. They both let a volley of bullets fly at John.

John was ready. His Nerf gun motor was whining. The morning attack had been replayed in his mind several times over. He guessed the bullets had been coming at him at around thirty miles an hour. With the long distance from the firing point to him now they were slowing with drag to twenty something. He stepped and turned and watched them sail past, millimetres from his chest. He held his gun up and returned fire.

A second later Denise and Terry were both hit by a load of bullets as Alex shook his like a Tommy Gun in a scene from The Godfather. "We won!"

Denise puts her hands up. "Okay. Time to reload for round two. One nil to the Butt Cheeks."

[Chapter-16](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-16-1)


	16. Chapter 16

In bed that evening covered in tiny bruises from being shot at close range John thought about the day ahead. He'd forgotten to go food shopping. He'd have to make do with whatever was available for breakfast.

"Alarm. 10AM. Go food shopping."

The phone is checked for messages. He replies to one from Cindy: 'Good thanks. Glad you liked the photos and videos. I don't know who they're from but I have memories of skills that weren't mine. Or Luke's. No was could he have mastered all those by his age. Did I ever tell you I have a sister?' He sends and watches for a while, rests the phone on the bed and yawns. She'd probably gone to sleep.

Cindy picks up her phone and reads. 'A sister? Since when? What skills?' She switches to the photo album and watches another video of them dancing together at the rave. She had her rave followers, her Uni fans. The latter were loving the gadgets she was coming up with to pair with the compute block. The Uni still hadn't found a replacement lecturer and told them to get on with whatever projects they could while one was found. "Molls, do you think I should actually talk to him? I'm over the shock of seeing him as Luke, but Luke's voice.."

Meow.

"Isn't it. I'd rather listen to nails on a blackboard. If only he could change that."

Molly stands and stretches, front legs right out, bum in the air. PURRRRRRR. She jumps off the bed and slowly walks towards the door.

"Oh my God Molly! How low can you go? I wonder.." she switches to Safari and searches, scrolls and taps links. After a few minutes reading she does a wonky pout. "Hmm." She smiles at her cat now sat in the doorway. "Worth a shot. Thanks." The link is copied and pasted. 'Your voice needs to break. No offence.'

John nods, 'None taken. I'll check out the link. The skills? You have to see them in person :)' He goes to put the phone down. "Why not now.." he taps and waits for the page to load. One of the boys must be up and doing something, the WiFi crawled. Maybe Terry was downloading films to the iPad. "Broadcasting? I wonder if the cameraman used this. Ding-dong, king-kong, bing-bong." He then repeats the words as deeply as he can, which wasn't very, then again in a mid range voice. 'Cool. Body'n Bass Building. I'll need to post video too not just photos.'

'Post? Where?'

'Search Instagram tomorrow for #JohnLuke.'

There's a long wait for a reply.

'Who's she?'

Oops. The girl in the Apple store. 'Just a fan.'

'Of you?'

'Have you not been watching the news?'

'No. Why? What's happened?'

John keeps her waiting.

'John?? Are you okay?'

He grins to himself.

'JOHN!'

'Search the web for Luke saves baby Lucy.'

Now it's his time to wait for a reply. He yawns and is about to put down the phone when it rings.

"Don't talk! This might be Ruby speaking but I think my ovaries just exploded! Don't you _dare_ say yes to any other girl wanting to be your girlfriend. Somewhere inside what I see as Luke Maddon is what's left of John Cooper. _My_ John Cooper."

He's about to reply when she hangs up. He frowns at the phone. "I love you too." He could forget bat-shit crazy operations with a bit of luck.

Phone placed in the overhead holder he makes a mental note to get a super long charge cable. Draining Denise's backup battery again on the train into the city wouldn't go down well.

He puts their Spotify playlist on at a really low volume and puts his hands by his sides and closes his eyes, pictures her dancing around in underwear.

Far from having a peaceful night he dreamt of the end of his past life on loop; Cindy coming back as Ruby, the fun together, the rave, recovery from Neural Lace surgery at his parents then the crash. He'd wake in a cold sweat, fall back to sleep and go through it all over again. After waking for the forth time he got up and crept downstairs for a glass of water.

Time?

04:17

"Balls."

Sat at one of the dining room tables he thought about the dream, things still clear in his head. Then it hit him like Miley Cyrus on a wrecking ball crashing through the wall.

That wasn't his parents.

They were very good doubles, but not them. His mother's hips were fine. No way could she have done the hours of gardening with him sat watching if they'd been bad. And Dad having early onset dementia? No way.

When he'd come around in Luke's body the tiny telltale sign had been the scar on his finger missing. The doctor had a scar on his face. So did his father. His real father. A fresh one too from slipping on something in the garage and gashing his temple. The man posing as his father didn't have a scar.

Was the girl introduced as his sister really his sister? Or just a young actress playing a part?

He crept back upstairs and grabbed his phone and dialled.

Cindy rolled and knocked Molly. In her dream church bells rang, she looked down at the ruby red wedding dress and bouquet of ruby stones and smiled. John Cooper was waiting inside.

John got her voicemail message and hung up. He called again.

Molly jumped on the ringing phone and started fighting it, bumping Cindy.

"Molls, pack it in." After a couple of seconds she was properly awake and snatched up the phone and rubbed her eyes. "Have you any idea what time it is? Oh, it's you. What are you talking about? Yes, yes, pop around in the morning." She hangs up and flops back down onto the bed, "Oh God what have I agreed to Molls?"

Meow.

Cindy returned to her dream soon after. John Cooper no longer looked like John Cooper. Or Luke Maddon. Whenever she tried to look at him she saw a fuzzy shimmering blend of the two men.

[Chapter-17](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-17-1)


	17. Chapter 17

Denise knocked on the door. "John? Are you getting up? .. John?" She opens the door slightly, "John?" There was no answer. She turned and looked down the stairs. "Terry?"

"Yes Mum."

"Can you come up here and wake John please?"

"Can't you do it?"

"What if he's naked?"

"God Mum! You're a nurse! You've seen it all before!"

Denise nodded to herself. She had. And that was the problem.

Brandon steps out of their bedroom into the hall. "I'll do it. Terry's probably got his head stuck in that new toy John lent him."

He opens the door and steps inside. Seconds later he's back out. "The bed's empty?"

"He's left?"

"His phone's still in the room, he can't have."

Denise frowns at her husband. "Where is he then?"

"Search me."

She heads for the stairs, "Boys, any sign of John?"

Terry calls back. "He's not down here."

"Have a look for him would you?"

"I've just come from the kitchen. His shoes are by the front door."

"Where the hell is he then?"

Alex comes running. "He's in the garden!"

John moved fast and attacked the invisible enemy, disabled him and had him pinned to the ground fast. With another behind he leaps backwards, does a flip over and springs to his feet, does a high kick at his assailant's head.

"WOW!"

He turns to see Alex running down the garden. He does a shallow bow. "Morning young Alex!"

"Mum wondered where you were. Can you teach me how to do that?"

"Do what?"

Alex waves arms about, his fingers straight.

"Not in school uniform, no. Another time in something more comfortable maybe." He turns to see the rest of the family watching. They start to clap and he does another bow. Time? 06:44. "I better go shower."

Denise watches him come up the lawn, "When did you get the baggy trousers?"

"Don't you recognise them? They're the hospital ones. Minus a few inches at the bottom."

"So they are."

"Hopefully I've not ruined your kitchen scissors. I'll get you a new pair if I have."

"I'm sure they'll be fine. What do you want for breakfast?"

"Half a dozen eggs scrambled please. I'll go shopping tonight to replace them. I better go shower."

Brandon raises an eyebrow. "Wait a sec." He pulls Denise's phone out of her back pocket. "The lights good and that sweat makes you look like you've been working out really hard. Strike a pose." Snap. "There you go. Day one."

"Thanks man."

"No problem."

At the dining table Alex pushes his oats around the bowl, "John, how do you get big?"

"You mean put on muscle?"

The boy nods.

"By ripping yourself apart. At a microscopic level. You rip muscle fibre, it heals and grows. Do it enough and you get bigger. It's why you have to eat really well and lots and lots of the right thing, your body has to repair itself."

"Does it hurt?"

"No pain, no gain. If it doesn't hurt a little your not doing it right. Ache is probably a better word. You'd ache after a proper workout."

"Oh."

"And you do proper rotations."

"What are they?"

"You focus on one muscle group one day, a different one the next. That gives each one a chance to recover. Does that make sense?"

Alex nods, "Thanks."

Denise looks at her watch, "We better get a move on or we'll have Sue tapping her foot angrily. She hates the night shifts."

John shovels the last of his scrambled eggs in and grabs his phone, waves to the boys.

They get to an empty platform and see the train approaching in the distance.

John checks his phone for charge. Stopping the music early morning had saved the battery. "A slight change of plan today. As soon as I've dropped you at the hospital I'm off to see Cindy."

"Wow, she's changed her mind fast?"

"Hmm. Can your team do DNA profiling?"

"The lab on the south wing can. They're private like us, it will cost."

"I'll talk to the doctor, see if he'll cover it."

"What do you need your DNA tested for?"

"Not mine. John Cooper, his sister and parents."

"You don't think the girl's your sister?"

"I do. It's the parents I'm worried about."

"Huh?"

"When I popped over to get the phone sorted, there wasn't something quite right. I think they're imposters."

"Oh John, it's just your mind playing tricks on you in Luke's body. Anyway, where are you getting John's DNA from?"

"That's hopefully where Cindy can help out."

[Chapter-18](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-18-1)


	18. Chapter 18

Cindy opens the door and looks John up and down. "You better come in. Coffee?"

"Thanks."

She shuts the door. "You yanked me out of a nice dream with your call. What were you after again?"

"DNA. John's DNA."

"Jesus, how do we get that?"

"Not at my parent's, and my body's been cremated. The hair brush I used.."

"I cleaned it. Sorry."

"The spare tooth brush?"

"Use to clean the hob and binned."

"Oh for.. never mind. You weren't to know."

Cindy's eyes light up. "The book!"

"Book?"

"The book on the world war two lookout posts. You'll think me weird. When I was teasing you in bed and pulling out chest hair, the morning after I found them in the sheets and put them in the back of the book!"

"I don't remember any book?"

"It wasn't sexy enough? Let me find it, stick the kettle on for me would you?"

"Sure."

As he's filling the kettle Molly walks over and rubs up against his legs.

"Hello Molly. How are you?"

Purrrr.

"Hey Cindy, Molly's just walked over and said hello, not run."

"Sixth sense that cat. Where'd I put.. here we go." She steps into the kitchen.

John puts the kettle on. "Don't touch them. Have you got a clean bag we could put them in?"

"Like a small freezer bag?"

"Sounds ideal."

"Where are you getting them processed?"

"The private lab at the hospital."

Cindy smiles, "I'm coming with you then. I want to see Arakawa anyway."

"Me too, to see if he'll cover the costs and if the blood test reports are back."

"I'll pay."

"It'll be expensive."

"Don't care."

"I can't get at any of my money. You're a diamond."

She steps up close and kisses him on the cheek. "No. I'm a Ruby. Forget the coffee, we can get some out. Let's go."

She throws a few things into a red handbag and puts on her pendant. "Can't forget my lucky pendant now can I? How did you get here?"

"Bus. I've got an.. Oyster card. Hah. For a second I wanted to call it an Octopus card."

"Both sea creatures beginning with O. I can understand that."

"Can you?"

She bends down and gets a small ziplock bag out of a draw. "Luke's brain is having to process a lot of new data, there'll be the odd mistake."

"Oh. So my worries about my parents could just be his, my, brain glitches?"

She opens the book and shakes it until the hairs slide into the bag. "Could be."

"This is probably a waste of time and money then. Forget it."

She seals the bag, grabs his hand. "Forget the parents then, prove your sister is really your sister."

"Okay. We need to head over to their place first then. How do we get samples?"

"Leave that to me."

Two and a half hours later at the back of a bus she wriggles to get her dress straight.

John frowns. "Uncomfortable?"

"No, my cleavage wasn't central. I'm Ruby, please to meet you Luke." She winks. "Ruby Cindy or Cindy Ruby? Neither have the ring of John Luke."

John lets out a brief snort. "Sorry."

"What?"

"I was just doing a letter switch in my head. Cinby Rudy."

"Or Rudy Cinby? That rudy Cinby, got her tits all out of whack."

John looks at her with an affectionate smile, "Now that has to be Ruby talking."

"Nah, Cinby Rudy. We've done a mind meld remember."

"A what?"

"You don't remember Spock in Star Trek?"

John frowns, "Was he with Jean-Luc Picard?"

"No, different series.. no wait! He was, as an ambassador years after. Seriously? You don't remember?"

"I have no idea who you're talking about."

"Okay. You and me are going to break NetFlix with a movie marathon."

"Can I work out at the same time?"

"I'd rather you didn't."

He sighs, "So much to pack into a day. I suppose if I do one before breakfast, get Denise safely to work, come over to see you, watch a movie, have lunch, another movie then workout, get Denise home I can then do detective work in the evening after playing games with the boys."

"For each time you said watch a movie make it two."

"They're that short?"

"They're not all long Hobbit films."

"I see _my precious_."

She puts a hand on his thigh and turns in her seat. "What made you say it like that?"

"I watched the films with Dad when I was recovering."

She gives him a puzzled look. "Are you sure?"

"Positive. Why?"

"Let's get these tests done. Two stops."

"Do you know something I don't?"

She gives him another kiss on the cheek, rubs red lipstick off. "Given what went on at the hospital, that has to be a yes."

"I mean something specific to Dad and I watching the box set?"

"Maybe. But let's be like our old selves. No speculation, only analysis of hard facts."

"Can I put my arm around you?"

She leans in. "Sure. You've got just over a stop and a half."

[Chapter-19](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-19-1)


	19. Chapter 19

John paced back and forth. "The suspense is doing me in!"

"Do sit down you're wearing out the lino."

He sits beside her and rubs hands on knees.

"Relax."

"I can't!"

"Close your eyes and pretend we're chilling out in my bedroom."

"You want me to replace stress with a stiffy? That's not going to help."

"Sorry. The lab can't speed up time, it takes as long as it takes. Practice your words then."

"Ding-dong, king-kong, bing-bong. Ding-dong, king-kong, bing-bong. Ding-dong, king-kong, bing-bong."

"Not bad."

There's a beep beep beep.

"Haha! Is your block wanting to join in?"

John looks down at the pouch on his hip. "Oh crap."

"What?"

"There am I worrying about a phone charger and I totally overlooked charging my compute block."

"You've not charged it since you got it?"

"No."

"Unplug and I'll go find someone to charge it."

John reaches up to his head.

"Not that end! The block end."

"Oh. Sorry. Second first time." He disconnects it and twitches. "Hi."

"Everything okay?"

"It is if you're here, you're gorgeous." He looks around. "What are we doing here?"

"Very funny John."

"John? Who's John?"

"You are."

"I'm.."

The door at the end of the corridor opens and a lab technician walks through with a card file. "We have the results for you."

Cindy stands, "All family?"

"All family. Mother, father, sister and brother."

"You're certain?"

"Absolutely. There's a copy in here for you."

"Thanks." She accepts the file and watches the lady return to the lab.

She sits and looks at John. "Did you understand any of that?"

"Sure. I was messing with you earlier."

She punches him lightly in the ribs, "I know you were, you couldn't keep a straight face."

He rests his head in his hands. "Oh crap. You fucking idiot John!"

"What now?"

"When I came out of the hospital I had a load of medication to take, some pretty powerful pain killers, antibiotics and the likes. They made me a bit.. fuzzy headed. I think one didn't agree with me, I got slightly blurred vision."

"And?"

"I wasn't imagining the gash to his head, or the blood running from it, that didn't need 20:20 vision. It wasn't fake parents we've just visited. It was doubles _while I recovered_! Which means I told fake Dad all about your work.."

"I knew it.."

".. and whoever was behind it all bumped me off. What do you mean you knew it?"

"Last year you told me your father _hates_ the lord of the rings films. He'd never sit through one with you."

"Shit. Then it also means that my backup was mostly based on fake information. Were the stories they told all made up? If so the only bit of John Cooper in me when I came around in this body that wasn't a lie was memories of you and the uni students, people at the rave."

A girl enters the room and sits on the other side and faces them.

Cindy puts a hand on his, "I'm sorry John."

He sighs heavily, turns to look straight at her and smiles. "If the only thing in me that's true, is you, that's enough."

"Awww, that's so sweet!"

"It is?"

"You could sell t-shirts with those words."

The girl that had just sat down grins, "Or panties."

Cindy looks a little shocked. "Sorry?"

"Got Insta?"

"Yes?"

"Check out Alt Panties. They specialise in alternative underwear. If you make contact to get some made say Valentina suggested them."

John finds the account and realises some of the photos were of the young lady talking to them. He scrolls and taps a photo of another girl and has a good hearty laugh.

Cindy rolls her eyes, "Men."

John doesn't say anything, just shows her the picture of a girl with a slogan on the back of her pants.

"Nerf this?"

He nods, "If Terry and Alex got to see this.. we had a Nerf gun fight last night."

"You'd be in trouble with Denise."

"That's an understatement."

Valentina giggled, "An undies-tatement! Mind if I use that?"

"Which?"

"Undies-tatement."

John smiled, "You just made it up, it's yours."

Cindy stands, "We better go, see the doc."

"Sure. Nice meeting you Valentina."

"Likewise."

Outside waiting for a bus Cindy finds the account and scrolls. "Why do such pretty girls plaster themselves in ink?"

"No idea."

"She can't have watched the news, she didn't know who you were."

"Or she was used to seeing famous people and knew how to keep calm."

Cindy snorts, "Famous.."

"My tongue was firmly in my cheek."

"Not between my cheeks." She does a little saucy pout. "The Ruby in me talking. Some of these are _sooo_ suggestive. Look at this one."

"Keep calm and use the force? I don't get it?"

"Star Wars?"

"You mean Trek?"

"No. Jedi ring any bells?"

John does the fingers at head sign.

"Oh. More films to watch. Luke is a key character. The force too. They're so popular they're part of everyday culture for many. Like _Trust Me, I'm The Doctor_."

"Is that a Star Wars quote?"

Cindy laughs hard, "No. Old you loved the show it came from. Let's watch some together, then you'll get it. Get your octopus ready, the bus is coming."

"Are you going to let me forget that?"

"No. Because I love it. An octopus is way cuter."

John's phone chimes. He'd got another follower. "Haha. She recognised me alright."

Cindy takes the phone from him, "She's another stunner. Have I got competition to worry about?"

"No."

"I quite like the design."

"How's Luke's body in the light sabre department?"

"In the what?"

"Man sword? Wedding tackle.."

"Oh. That. Same as John's, no bigger or smaller."

"Good."

"Or at least I think it will be, it's not seen any action from me. Ladies first." He motions towards the bus.

They sit at the back again and John returns to Instagram.

Cindy watches him scroll and tap a few images. "Admit it, you like her."

"No."

"Don't lie John."

"I'm not. Pay attention, what have these all got in common." He goes through a number of images.

"They're all of her, she's gorgeous."

"Not her, the underwear."

"Oh. Show me again?"

He does so.

"They're all sets of matching bra top and panties?"

"Exactly. If the only thing in me that's true, is you, that's enough _to satisfy me_. Print the bulk of the words on the top, the last two on the panties."

"John!"

"Sorry. But it was you who enquired as to the nature of my.. light sabre, whatever one of those is. Look I'm broke, can't sponge off the doctor forever and I don't want to be a kept man. This feels like something that could bring in a little cash very quickly with minimal outlay. Especially if you model them."

Cindy looks a little startled, looks for signs that he was joking. He wasn't. "Um.. I'm no model."

"Neither are any of these girls by profession I'd guess. You're a gorgeous girl next door. I'd rather you modelled them than have to send them to one of these girls. If they want them they can buy them."

"We could ask Tina.."

"As a second model sure, I bet she's got a huge following. And I bet most guys don't know her preferences. I'd still want you as the face of our brand. Ruby's Undies. That smile of yours is a killer."

"I might live to regret it.."

"Are you worried about what Sam might think?"

"No. The other students. What a change, top of my field with Neural Lace as Cindy Bexley, contemplating modelling alternative underwear now. I suppose we both need to reinvent ourselves."

John nods. "Answer me this, who had the most fun? Cindy working on Neural Lace. Or Chloe the student, hardware and software hacker, party goddess?"

"This last six months? Chloe. Aka Ruby and Cindy."

"Well then." He sits for a while just enjoying her being sat next to him. "When did you tell Sam about me? The new look and all?"

She frowns, "I didn't."

"Huh? So how does she know?" he finds the photo and comment, "See?"

Cindy shakes her head slightly, "Maybe the doctor? She could have called him when I went awol." She gets her own phone and looks at her contact list, starts following a load on his. "This should get you a load of follow backs."

[Chapter-20](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-20-1)


	20. Chapter 20

Doctor Arakawa gave Cindy a big hug, "Lovely to see you again!"

"Thanks. The plot thickens. It turns out the people John recovered with were not his parents. Close doubles that he'd not twigged as the drugs you gave him made him a bit out of it, blurred his vision. Possibly messed up his hearing too."

"We only gave him strong pain killers, they'd not do that?"

John uses a trick from Cindy to control his phone, types out names seen on the containers. "No you didn't. I got this lot."

The colour drains from Genzo's face as he reads the long list. "Who gave you all these John?"

"Denise. She said Sue sorted them out."

Cindy takes a seat. "One of the lads at the uni said some people thought the bombing was an inside job. How much do you trust your staff?"

"Totally. With my life."

"You need to find out why Sue added other things."

"She would have given what I put on your file, nothing more."

Cindy scoffs, "Clearly she didn't. So either she's the culprit, you added them in error or someone hacked your systems. Which is it?"

The doctor shakes his head, "I came close to giving someone a lethal dose of drugs ten years ago by accidentally putting one too many zeros on a dosage. Sue caught the error. I've been quadruple checking my prescriptions ever since. It wasn't me. And I trust Sue."

"Check John's file then."

The doctor walks around the desk, "That's easy enough to do." He sits, slides his ID card out of its holder and swipes it through the reader on the keyboard. "John Cooper. Let's see, prescription history.. URUSAI UZAI!"

John races around to see. "So she did do as instructed."

"Yes. But that's not my ID code against the last entry." He points.

"Who's is it?"

"Nobody in my team. All my staff's codes start with 60, 63 or 72. Mine starts 81. This one starts 68. Your affiliate cards would have started 99."

"Can you look it up?"

"One moment." He copies the text, goes to a directory look up form and pastes, clicks on Search.

The mouths of both men drop open.

Cindy looks between the two. "Who is it?"

John raises a hand and beckons her to join them.

She steps around, "HOLY SHIT!"

Arakawa flips back and forth between pages. "This is not possible. Not possible. Look at the dates and times."

Cindy commits them to her compute module. "John Cooper the second coming. Holy fucking shit. They didn't just steal your online identity John, they stole your body! Look when that ID was created."

"Hence the Alliance update. Doc, can you go to the Alliance forums, find my profile?"

"Tashikani."

"Try and relax, you're getting stressed."

"I no stresso."

"You answered in Japanese then said I no stresso! If that's not you getting stressed.."

"Cooper-san. You use keyboard." He wheels backwards out of the way.

John kneels in front of the desk and types. A page loads. "See! Apart from fake Mum and Dad, a sister too young to be taken seriously who knows I died? The uni crowd? Whoever is behind this just says _It's an error, the hospital made a mistake, got the names of two bodies mixed up_?"

Cindy gets out her phone, starts calling numbers. "They can't all be busy?"

"Cin?"

"They're all going straight to voicemail."

The doctor stands. "We go. Lunch. Talk. We take Cindy for treat."

John smiles, "Osaka?"

"Osaka."

Cindy looks from John to Genzo. "Osaka?"

"Osaka."

"What's Osaka?"

John grins, "You'll see."

Cindy watches the doctor walk to a door and open it, poke his head in and whisper.

Moments later Denise steps through almost in a run, fighting to get an arm in a jacket sleeve that's half inside out. "You'll love it Cindy, it's.."

Both men cough loudly.

".. a surprise. Everyone got an Oyster card? We can jump on a bus."

"Octopus at the ready!"

Denise frowns at John.

Cindy wraps an arm around him, "Our little joke. Let's go."

Genzo "Godzilla" Arakawa moved at a speed that caught the others by surprise, "Cooper-san, the events of the last two days.. they give me.. how do you say shinobiyoru?"

"The creeps?"

"Ah, the creeps. Big the creeps. We share an Internet connection and other services with the rest of the hospital, but our server lives on private side of firewall. How did 680221748 gain access to our machines?

"I swiped in, walked in and did it. Or rather my body with someone else at the wheel."

"No, no, the timings, we were processing Luke ready for you, reception would have been locked. Even for you."

"What if I was already in your part of the building when the door was locked?"

The doctor continues to the bus stop at pace, "We didn't have CCTV then but we did have the invisible light beam that warns us of people entering reception. And we don't have places to hide in."

John shrugged, "I don't know then."

Genzo turns to see behind him, "Keep up ladies!"

Cindy was tempted to take her shoes off and run barefoot. "He's moving like a penguin with a broom up its arse, I've never seen him speed walk before. Have you Denise?"

"Not like that. Genzo! Slow down!"

"You speed up!"

"We're ladies in heals you.." Calling the boss an annoying prick could be career limiting.

He stops and turns. "You?"

"Sneaky something. I couldn't think of a second word."

"Sneaky?"

"John told me about your lace plans. You want me to have one of the ones you're using? That's more than double my annual salary!"

He looks behind her, "Our bus, walk not talk."

John runs ahead and gets to the stop, puts his arm out.

Cindy laughs, "This dress has to go. It's not one to move in."

Denise turns to see and joins in the laughter, grabs her hand, "Fix it on the bus, come on, it's not much further."

With the four stood in a group half way along the bus Cindy does a long wriggle while pulling at the dress. "Does anyone understand what it's doing?"

Denise puts a hand out, "May I?"

"Sure."

She feels the fabric around the neck line. "Easy. You can see from the outside that the weave runs diagonally not straight, worse than that it's the material. Feel the inside."

Cindy does so. "Okay?"

"Run your finger over it in both directions."

"It's bumpy one way, smooth the other."

"And when you walk or run tiny movements make it grip one way, slide the other. We had some new scrubs with material a bit like this, the sleeves would keep riding up. Drove us crazy. Sue worked it out. The manufacturer replaced the lot for free."

"I've not got the receipt anymore."

John grins, "We can convince them it's in their best interest."

"How?"

"You can stand in their shop and dance to our track. I'll film it."

Cindy smiles, "I like that you like to see me dance, I can't see how it will help."

John points to the charity pin on the jacket Denise wore, "Put a few of these on it, it'll be obvious how they're migrating around you."

The doctor turns, "The first of our stops."

Cindy laughed, "Is this the Alternative Tour To London? First attraction, stand at a blank door watching a knackered light flicker? Or do I need to comment on the artistically scattered collection of cigarette ends?"

Denise drops her shoulders, "Damn, I can't believe she's worked it out already. Did someone tell you? John?"

"Don't look at me, I've not said a thing! Next bus!"

[Chapter-21](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-21-1)


	21. Chapter 21

Cindy looks at the glass doors as asked, steps sideways a tiny bit to align with the centre of the space. "Exhibit two. It's symmetrical. Lobby of depression?"

Arakawa turns, "You don't like black?"

"In moderation and with a splash of colour it's okay. This.. Where next?"

"Inside and downstairs for exhibit three."

"I'm hungry, can we skip the joke and go get lunch? I'm assuming this is all on the way there?"

Genzo turns and walks away, "Okay. Who fancies Yo Sushi?"

Cindy follows fast, "Me!"

John stands his ground, "Guys! We might as well see it as we're here!"

"Cooper-san, I'm hungry, walk no talk!"

Denise puts hands on hips, "GENZO ARAKAWA! GET YOUR ARSE BACK HERE NOW!"

He spins around fast, "My arse? How dare you talk to me like that!"

"I didn't talk, I SHOUTED!"

"How dare.."

Cindy tries to step between them. "Whoa, let's not have a domestic.."

Denise glares at the doctor, "We're not married."

Genzo glares back, "Who'd want to marry you!"

"Emperor penguin!"

""Emperor penguin! How dare you!"

John grabs Denise, "You stand here." He makes her walk to the left of the doors. "Arakawa-san, you go to the right. No moving until I've seen what's downstairs with Cindy okay? No shouting at each other either?"

Genzo crosses his arms. "She started it."

"You're worse than one of my boys!"

"Shush Denise!" John takes Cindy's hand, "Let's get this over with then grab lunch." He pulls at the door handle and leads her in.

Cindy looks around the lobby while they wait for the lift. "Things must be getting tense, I've never seen them like that before."

"Panic room and CCTV on order, I can understand them being on edge."

"True. Two murders, or one murder one body theft.."

"What next.. Close your eyes and take my arm. If it's something scary I'll lead you straight back to the lift."

"Okay."

Cindy hears the lift doors open and feels for his arm. She walks slowly letting him lead her. "Can you see what it is yet?"

"No. Maybe around this corner?"

They walk on a bit more.

"John? A B-29 bomber dropped an atomic bomb over Hiroshima. One thing I remember from history lessons. Did anything nasty happen to Osaka?"

"I expect so. Nasty things happen all over the world. Fortunately nice things outnumber them. Things like this."

Cindy opens her eyes. "Flipping heck!"

The lady in front of them both does a little bow, "Luke-san, may I know the name of your guest?"

"Hello again. This is.. Chloe. Known to her friends as Ruby due to her pendant and passion for red dresses."

"Hello Ruby, our newest Osaka friend. Welcome. A table for two.."

"Four please. Our friends will be down in a second or two."

Cindy turns to see him, "Was that all an act?"

"I think so. Although their improvisation may have overstepped the mark."

"She's not the first to liken me to a penguin."

They turn to see the doctor and his nurse arm in arm.

"I never got the knack of walking fast. I can walk and run. The bit in between, brain says no."

Cindy watches the others take off their shoes and copies them. They're shown to a table and she watches the two men get on their knees. "In this dress? You are joking?"

John gets up, "You've sat a number of times in it today, what's wrong?"

"Sat not kneeled. Look at the shape."

"Oh. Okay. We need a different table. I'll go ask."

A moment later he returned with the lady.

"Would a private booth with benches be better?"

"Please."

They all follow her to the back of the restaurant.

Cindy nods and smiles, "Way better! Thanks!" She slides in and pats the studded leather, "Come here Skywalker."

John stays motionless not having a clue who she was talking about.

"Luke. That's you."

"Oh. Sorry." He steps over and sits.

The doctor slides in copying her move as a waiter steps over.

"Arakawa-san, back so soon? You can't be hungry already?"

Cindy kicks him under the table, just hard enough to distract him. "He wanted me to see for myself, it's my first visit."

He opens his mouth to speak and is kicked again and frowns.

"Can we have menus please?"

The waiter motions to the place mats, red and black leather with embossed print. In Japanese.

"Oh. In English?"

John places a hand on hers, "I'll translate. If you could give us ten minutes?"

"Drinks?"

"Sake for four and water please."

With the waiter walking away Cindy leans forwards, "Bunch up.. John's parents had actor doubles, possibly. We know John's body has been stolen. If he thinks you've been in here earlier.."

"Not possible, I was at the hospital with Sue."

"Let me finish. If he thinks you've been in here earlier maybe you've got a double pretending to be you too?"

"Why would.."

"Let me get my thoughts out. Neural Lace is becoming a huge industry. Worth billions. In a few years it will be trillions. Denise said you're getting lace worth double her salary?"

"More than."

"Cindy Bexley was taken out. Maybe they couldn't find a suitable double. Or with John. So they changed tack and stole his instead."

John waited a few seconds to see if she'd add more. "If they have my original block and body why go to the lengths of fake parents?"

"They didn't have you yet. You were still recovering."

"But why crash a lorry into me like that? One with big steel plates welded on the front to protect it when they could have done something less public?"

Cindy unfolds her napkin and refolds it into a smaller rectangle. "This is your car." She takes his and does the same. "This is a standard lorry." With her index finger on the middle of the lorry front she drives it into the car. "Remember that." She takes a chopstick, puts the napkins back at their starting position and rests the chopstick against the napkin representing the lorry. "Steel plates."

John watches her simulate the crash again. "Oh. My. God. It wasn't to protect the lorry, it was to protect me! To shove the whole car sideways not crumple it up."

Cindy nods, "I bet anyone that witnessed the crash made the wrong assumption just as you had. And I've got a really horrible feeling I know why I couldn't get anyone to answer their phones earlier."

"Why?"

"You're at the university running a lecture."

"No!"

"Give me an alternative explanation."

"Shit. What do they hope to achieve?"

"You and Cindy Bexley were promoting the Alliance members equally and fairly right?"

"I don't remember. Let's assume that's the case."

"So John Cooper and Genzo Arakawa slowly start to show a bias towards a new vendor, say one from Japan, start running the competition down.."

"Abazure!" The doctor pinches his rib and pulls the connector.

"Zilla?"

"Doctor Akiyama. Maybe I trusted the beautiful lady too much." He pulls his shirt out, reaches behind and unclips the compute module, pulls it off. "Cindy, can you give the firmware on this a full audit?"

"Sure. I'll need to visit the uni to do it though." She quickly takes it and hides it by her side as the waiter arrives with drinks.

"Have you decided on what to eat?"

"Ni ninbun no mikkususerekushon wa dozoyoroshikuonegaishimasu."

Cindy gives John a look of wonder. "What did you just say?"

"The sharing mixed selection for two please I hope."

"Wow. I didn't know.."

"Remember the sushi we ate from the takeaway?"

"How could I forget!"

"You're about to have it again."

"But you said.."

"They're here."

"The guys from the little takeaway?"

"Yup. Arakawa-san and others helped put this place together."

"Flipping hell. It's awesome. Why hide it away?"

Denise takes a sip of her sake and holds the small cup between both hands, "Do you hear much?"

"No?"

"No kids running around, no drunken idiots, no noisy tourists being a nuisance. This place is strictly invite only. No random off the street visitors."

John refills Denise's cup. "The door with the flickering light above, that's the secret registration spot. Now you're face is known you can take Sam there, add her to the members list."

"If I invite Sam, Sam invites a friend, they invite their friends.."

Genzo tucks his shirt back in. "Friends of friends is fine. We want the business to do well. You should be aware of a house rule that is enforced without exception. Anyone who introduces a member that brings dishonor or shame to Osaka is banned. The two levels above them too. So Samantha's friend would have herself, Samantha and you both banned."

Cindy raises an eyebrow, "Oh. Noted. How do they know who introduced who?"

"Who stood closest to you by the door?"

"Easy, John."

"That was recorded."

"So who else has your double introduced?"

The doctor smiles, "As one of the founding members that's exactly what I plan to find out in the manager's office once you've all eaten."

"You're not eating?"

"Save a little and ask for it to go."

[Chapter-22](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-22-1)


	22. Chapter 22

Cindy slid down the bench seat, bumped knees with the doctor and moaned, looked around to see that nobody other than the three at the table with her were looking. "Sorry, these tastes brings back some good memories."

Denise gave her a knowing look, "Good isn't it."

"Unless you were able to pick through and understand my backup you don't know the half of it."

"Want to elaborate?"

"Um.." she glances sideways and talks in a near whisper, "Six pack as a plate?"

Denise's expression changes, "You and I are having a chat later. Just the two of us."

"Sure. If Genzo hadn't told us about the ban rule I'd be letting my Ruby side do all the talking, you'd have a lot of the details already and.."

John shifts, "You'd have told everyone? Thanks a bunch. Remind me to go food shopping Denise, this scrawny reject needs lots more eggs and.."

"Luke!"

He turns to see Cindy, his expression a little frosty. "What?"

She grabs his head with both hands and lands a kiss on his lips. She holds it there for a few seconds, "Details of the food silly head, I'm not up to this standard but I'm learning. I can tell you the names of all the maki sushi we had, what's in each."

"Nice try."

"Try?"

"At recovering the situation."

"I wasn't trying anything. You don't remember me noisily enthusing about anything do you?"

"No."

"Then the memories you kept of me were selective. I'm not perfect. You don't need to be either."

"Oh so now I'm inferior.."

"What I meant is that you don't need to go all body building crazy trying to look like John Cooper. Just be Luke with John's skills."

"What skills?" John sits and stares at his empty plate, says nothing more.

Denise puts her chopsticks down. "I can understand your frustration John. Cindy goes from skinny and flat to curvaceous, you go from the male equivalent in the other direction."

John's breathing starts getting deeper.

"John."

He doesn't respond.

Genzo tries again. "John. Look at me John."

He turns to see the doctor. "What?"

"We have Cindy's protocol. We just need to find John Cooper."

"And do what?"

"Get you back in your old body."

"And do what with this one?"

The doctor shrugs, "That, my friend, is up to you."

John rests his chin on a palm, "Who knows what it's mixed up in now. We can't just take it back as if nothing happened. Life's not like one of the Godzilla B movies you love so much Genzo."

Cindy slides towards John and wraps an arm around his shoulders, "Think about it Genzo, John would have to learn everything he could about what his old body was up to, take it over again and become a double agent, use all his skills to bring down the bad guys. And being super high risk he'd probably be better off existing in _both_ bodies at the same time. Double agent gets a whole new twist."

Denise does a little excited clap. "That's better than Face Off!"

John sighs, "Another movie I need to watch?"

"Yes."

"I think you've all watched far too many movies."

Cindy shakes her head, "On the contrary, you've not watched enough."

"Make that rewatched." 

Denise frowns, turns to the doctor, "Do you know if these booths are bugged?"

"Bugged?"

"Could anyone be listening to our conversation?"

Cindy shakes her head, "John's block is flat, Genzo disconnected his, I can't detect any nearby electrical signals with mine, we're good. Why?"

"Who was the Alliances best block coder?"

"Me. When I was Cindy Bexley."

John lifts his chin off his hand, "You still are. If anything you've got better as Chloe, you've opened up your mind to other possibilities. Why do you ask Denise?"

"The learn everything bit. Cindy, could you hack the Alliance systems such than John Luke gets a live feed of what John Cooper is up to? Spy on him through his own eyes?"

"HOLY SHIT!" She looks around, "So sorry! Please don't ban us!"

Genzo chuckles, "I think that one can be forgiven given the circumstances." He puts an open hand out to Denise, "I want to shake your hand, that's A movie material. Cindy, is it possible?"

"Um.. a pull-you-push-me. Our John would need some strong drugs to prevent his body from trying to replicate the moves. So he'd need to be in the hospital for a while."

"That we can do."

Denise turns to her boss, "And how do I tell the real Genzo Arakawa from the fake?"

"Give me your engagement ring."

"What?"

"I'll wear it."

"Why?"

"It's a simple band. I'm not wearing that diamond."

"Oh."

Genzo smiles, "John, please ask for the rest to go. As proud co-owner I'm giving you all a tour of the kitchen then office." He winks.

Twenty minutes later Genzo has them all in the office. "Suzuko, could you please load the face recognition administrator interface. Ruby here is studying at University, would like to see how it works."

"Hai." She mouses over to an icon on the desktop and clicks. Once it's running she clicks a number of menu items. "These are the founding members.."

Denise did a little inward breath, there were only ten, not fifty something.

".. the system knows their faces. When they go to our remote door the system logs the face or faces of their friends. From those relationships we build a tree."

Denise leans closer, "What's behind the door?"

"A wall. With just enough space between the two walls to put a system that runs the cameras."

Cindy looks to Denise and back to the screen, "How big is the tree of relationships?"

Click.

"Wow! They're dots. How many members are there now?"

John points to text in Japanese at the top right. "Three thousand seven hundred and twenty two."

"Hai. When anyone comes to the front door the system checks that all faces are known. If they are the doors unlock."

Genzo smiles, "Good isn't it."

Cindy nods, "A great use of technology. Say someone pinched your wallet when you were in here, can you see which guests were where?"

"We don't have CCTV inside. We don't wish to spy on our members. We do have full coverage of the lobby from inside and out. For example Suzuko, can you show when I was here earlier?"

"Hai. She types away and two icons appear, she double clicks the first."

Cindy gasps, "Oh wow, look who you're with! My university lecturer is a member!"

Genzo plays along, "Cooper-san is your lecturer? We have friends in common and didn't know? A small world we live in."

"And shrinking fast. You could invite him for a meal, get John Luke and I along, that would give him a surprise. We better head to Uni doc, we'll miss his afternoon lecture if we don't get a move on. Thanks for the lunch and tour."

"You are most welcome. Denise and I must also return to our work. Thank you Suzuko."

[Chapter-23](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-23-1)


	23. Chapter 23

Back on the street Cindy hands Denise the take away bag. "For Genzo when we're away from cameras. If there's another Arawaka do you think it's safe to return?"

The doctor shakes his head. "No. But return I must. I need the CCTV firm to install their cameras. Then I can reschedule all operations and monitor our facilities remotely. We also need to get enough drugs to enable us to disable John Luke, assuming he wants to try your idea?"

John nods. "Where though?"

Denise links arms with her boss. "Come stay at mine Genzo. Cindy, John can stay with you can't he?"

"You stole my moment!" She squeezes a hand under John's arm, "If you'd like that? We can talk about Alt things. Can we step away from the doors now?"

They slowly follow the doctor away and around a corner, Cindy taking little pigeon steps. She bends and reaches up her skirt, pulls out the doctors compute band. "God that was frigging uncomfortable! I'll need lab time to check this out, John you'll need to be the eyes in the back of my head, nobody else must see me do it."

"Sure. Denise, can we have the take out bag?"

She goes to hand the whole lot over.

"Just the bag please, Arakawa-san looked like he was going to cry."

Genzo laughs, "It was bad enough watching you three eat while I pretended to be full. That would have been too much."

Compute band rolled up and placed in the bag, napkins placed on top they exchange handshakes, hugs and kisses, go their separate ways.

Cindy gets her Oyster card out. "Octopus time. Let's get this one."

"But this one.."

"Goes the other side of campus. I could do with the long walk. And we can get to the lab without bumping into anyone. Hopefully."

"Good idea."

Just as he's stepping aboard his phone rings. With his things in the wrong hand he instinctively puts his card to his ear and phone to the card reader. "Oops!" He quickly taps the answer button and switches them around. "Hold a sec please!"

Cindy had expected him to be right behind her and turns, "Everything okay?"

"Me just being daft." He follows her to the seats at the back. "Hello. John Luke speaking. Hi John! How's Queen B been since your bit went out? She has? Good. He _what_? Seriously? Wow. Seriously? Holy f.. what now? Um.. Sure. Thanks." He rests his forehead in his other hand, elbow resting on his leg. "Mum? Hi. It's not Luke? That's a shame, I was getting used to.. Luke Maddon? Like Mad Don? Okay.. right now? I'm sat on a bus with my girlfriend. Um.. yes. Yes you do. It's Ruby." He holds his phone away from his ear as his mother shouts at him. "Mum! Calm down! Mum if you keep shouting I'm hanging up.. Mum! Five.. four.. three.. two.. bye." He hangs up the call. "Jesus!"

Cindy puts a hand on his shoulder. "No way are you getting me near your body mother. Your mind mother sounds much nicer. I counted six swear words."

"You could hear her?"

"I'd be surprised if the whole bus couldn't."

The phone chimes. "John's asking permission to give her my number so she can talk direct."

"Say not today, she can calm down and have it tomorrow."

"That might matters worse. And she wants to arrange things."

"What things?"

"The blooming architect only paid for the news coverage to go national, and now my family have been in touch he's paid for a big welcome home party. The family all expect me there. Tomorrow."

"For for Pete's sake!"

"I know. Stop the world, I want to get off. Far too much happening at once. My head's spinning."

"If you do want to get off, allow yourself to get knocked over by a massive wave, that tends to do the job."

He chuckles, puts an arm around her. "No thanks. Surviving that sounds like your expertise not mine."

Ruby holds the pendant, "Yeah. Cindy was f'ing lucky I was about."

John glances sideways with his eyes for a second, smiles to himself. His smile is joined by a slight frown as he sees the expression changing on her face. "Everything okay?"

"Just having an internal natter between myself, myself and I."

His phone chimes again. "Shit. He's pushing for a yes or no."

"Say yes then. That's our conclusion."

He replies to John's text and pockets the phone. "Every time she raises her voice I'll hang up. She'll get the message soon enough."

"Or get really, really, _really_ fucking annoying."

He had a gut feeling that was her Ruby side talking. Best not to question it and just go with the flow.

Sat in the computer lab on opposite sides of a low partition so they could see both entrances, Cindy gets to work. In the ladies toilets she'd stripped down to underwear, picked at the seam on her dress, put the doctor's compute band on and redressed. Now she had a spare cable running from her hip to a lab PC.

"How's it looking?"

"Good. So far it looks like stock Alliance code with tweaks for the fact it's got more space for hook code to add functions. And it's got all the functions I'd told you about. Connect to Bluetooth devices.."

The door hinges behind creek.

John swears under his breath and whispers, "Switch screens. Now!"

".. formula's got to be wrong.. no way can that be the correct answer." Cindy keeps looking at her screen, unaware of who had walked in, only that someone had. She feels a hand brush her hair to one side and a kiss to the neck, watches Luke cringe. She turns and flinches. 'Mr Cooper!"

"Hello Chloe. Why so startled?"

"You.. you can't just go around kissing students like that!" Boy did she have conflicting emotions. She loved him, old him, wanted to kiss him back. With whoever was driving now she felt like Ripley being slobbered over by an Alien.

"Everyone's seen the video's of us dancing at the rave, or were actually there. They know we're an item. Why weren't you in my lecture today?"

The skin on her neck felt like it wanted to dissolve and slough away. "Nobody told me you were back." She wanted to add _From the dead_ but though better of it. "Someone told us a load of shit. We all thought you were in a crash."

"I was, but not fatal. Who's your friend?"

"Luke. We'd just been to lunch with a friend, we better go, stuff to do."

"Your friend can go, let's chat."

"We're arranging a big party, don't have time right now."

"Chloe, stay."

Cindy closes her eyes to concentrate, sends Luke a message via her phone. She needed to disconnect the compute module from the PC but couldn't do so without being obvious. If he found out about the new module.. "Another time. I'll get someone to bike some sushi over from that takeaway place you like."

"Okay. Sunday? Your place?"

"I'll be away."

"Saturday?"

"Out shopping for Sunday."

"All day?"

"Shopping then a girls night out at the cinema."

"Seeing what?"

"Whatever's on."

"I'll come around late Saturday, see you after the film."

Luke stands and goes to walk around the long line of desks. "Cooper! Awesome! Now the penny drops! You the lace expert? Right?"

"I am. Know about it do you?"

"My blocks out of charge and won't recharge, can you help.."

"I don't do hardware, only software."

"Can't you at least take a look?"

"I just said I don't do hardware."

Luke slows his approach, lets his shoulders drop. "Oh well. Who do I see then?"

"Take it back to whoever.."

Luke struck out fast, slammed Cooper's head against the wall. His former body slid down the wall. "Fuck! If I've just mashed my brain up I'm going to be well annoyed."

Cindy disconnects fast. "What did you do that for!" She hides the compute module back in the bag.

"You want this shit forcing himself on you Saturday night?"

"No but what happened to get to know his actions and contacts? All the see through his eyes stuff?"

"Shit. Shit shit shit fucking _shit_! Why does everything have to happen all at fucking once! I was hoping for a couple of months to work things out. Not fucking days!"

"Calm down."

"Calm down! _I've just knocked my former body unconscious!_ "

"Lower your voice, others might hear."

He walks around pacing, "John Luke is an idiot. Plan A, B and C go flying out the window.."

"The window."

"You what?"

"Go look out of the window."

"Which one?"

"Any."

He steps over and looks out onto the field in the distance. "And?"

"Look straight down."

"Bins. You're suggesting we throw him away?"

"Yes. And I ask one of my friend's Dad to do an early collection."

"I'm not having him crushed into one of those compacting bin lorries."

"They use a simple open truck. We just cover him with a layer of empty bottles. He's still breath okay."

"Okay. Let's make that the new Plan B. Let's see if Arakawa can do something for A." He pulls his phone out. "Zilla, if ever we needed you.."

Cindy risks getting up close to the unconscious Cooper and whispers in his ear, "You were supposed to keep it secret you arse."

[Chapter-24](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-24-1)


	24. Chapter 24

John Cooper wakes in his original body. "Holy cow did somebody hit me?"

Luke smiles, "I did, sorry."

John sits up slowly, "Luke?"

"John Luke. Or Luke Maddon if you want to call me by my body's original name. You are me and I am you. Just different looks."

John closes his eyes tight then squints, looks around the room. "I remember the body. Cindy, what's going on?"

"What's the last thing you remember?"

"Um.. Ding-dong, king-kong, bing-bong? Waiting for DNA results."

"Good. The family you visited last as Luke are your real family."

"Buddy, if you are me and.. did I have to hit myself so bloody hard?" He feels the back of his head, "Ouch! Fuck that's a bump and a half."

"No way was I letting him at Cindy."

"Him?"

"You."

"Me?"

Cindy stokes his knee. "Your body had been stolen. Not cremated. Another person was using it."

"I'd sort of guessed that. Either that or these are some rather amazing ashes. Man alive. Anyone got pain killers? Why hit me so hard?"

"I didn't want him going anywhere near Cindy again. Nasty fucker."

John closes his eyes, tries to think. "Only me in here now by the feel of it. You definitely used the protocol on me, no evil shit slipping into my thoughts?"

Denise nods, "Three times just to be sure. After backing him up of course."

"What good is that?"

Cindy grabs a chair by the back and wheels it over. "How nasty could you get? If you really had to?"

"Nasty? What sort of way nasty?"

"To interrogate someone."

John looks around, "Interrogate?"

The doctor steps closer and sits on the bed end. "We are fighting people who think nothing of murder and body theft, planting doubles." He turns the ring from Denise on his finger. "They're not the sort to reason with I think."

"So?"

"We fight just as dirty."

"How?"

"We restore him into the only other body we have available."

Denise nods, "The one without the feet."

"Yes. And we remove another inch to make it look like we've just amputated the feet to stop them running away."

John could feel the contents of his stomach wanting to come up. "I think I'm going to puke."

"Then I will knock you out and perform the interrogation. I'm a surgeon, I've seen all sorts of bodies."

Denise puts a hand on Genzo's shoulder. "Allow me. I'll knock you both out, say I've got your double too."

Cindy nods, "Give me some scrubs and I'll assist. The shit will think we've caught both of them. Best you hand back that ring."

"Not before I bolt the door."

John's colour drains. "It's a shame friendly conversation won't work."

Luke got into scrubs too. "Funny how we're the same person yet he felt like puking and I didn't."

John smiled, "Thanks pal."

"You're welcome me."

Cindy pulled down her mouth covering. "No fighting boys. I want you _both_ to stay at mine tonight. You did your martial arts on the shit Luke, you're in a different state of mind. Our minds evolve from second to second. The actions of a split second can change a person. You're both still mostly John. Fight our enemies not each other."

Denise places a large perspex box on the floor and starts cutting open packets of blood. "Such a waste, but it'll help."

Cindy frowns, "How?"

"Make it look so full of blood her feet have sunk out of sight."

Cindy felt her sushi move. "Lovely."

John looks around the room, "Drop other things in to take up the volume."

"Like?"

"Tools you'll not use?"

Genzo opens draws, "Good idea! Save some nasty looking ones just for the effect."

Luke pulls open a draw, "Jesus! What's this one for?"

"Cracking open the rib cage."

"Yuck."

Denise injects Genzo and John to knock them out. "It's only a light one, they'll be sleeping more than out like a general, we won't need equipment."

"Good."

Luke picks up the reciprocating saw and turns it on. "We'll get a fair bit of blood over our scrubs and the floor with the body like that."

Cindy tastes sushi in her mouth, feels her stomach roll. "Sorry, I thought I was touch enough."

Luke nods, "Wait outside and be our lookout incase fake Zilla shows up."

"Okay."

Cindy races through the door, through the scrub up corridor, through the recovery room and gets to reception just in time to puke into the bin. Thankfully it was lined. She pulls it out and ties a knot in the top.

"Shit. That was good sushi too." She puts her playlist on and puts the volume up high to drown out any hint of what was going on in the now distant room.

Instagram kept her amused for almost an hour, a mix of underwear, cats, kittens, puppies and other miscellaneous things that caught her eye.

She jumped at the sound of the door opening. "Shit! John?"

"Genzo's doing an autopsy on the body, seeing if there are any bits worth passing on to some old dear."

"What did you get out of him."

"Two words."

"Two?"

"You and Fuck. Just not in that order."

"Shit. Plan C then."

"What's plan C?"

"Plan Cindy."

"I'm not letting you risk.."

"John! We don't have much choice! We need to know what he knows! Restore him into me _without_ the wipe protocols. Ruby and Cindy vs shit head. We'll shout out what he knows. Then you wipe and restore."

"Too risky, what if something goes wrong.."

"John! We don't have any other options!"

"Sure you do."

They both turn to see Luke, holding a small iPad, followed by Denise.

"We hack the Alliance servers, install a false door like Osaka's. And we get their systems to turn his backup into readable data. There'll be a ton of it and it will take days to process."

Cindy frowns, "A false door?"

"Backdoor, whatever hackers call it. Something we can knock at to get another door to open. Letting us in."

"Where are we going to get someone with those sorts of skills?"

Denise drags a shoe across the floor, "Um.. tell anyone and he'll be in trouble with the police again."

"Who?"

"My eldest son."

[Chapter-25](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-25-1)


	25. Chapter 25

Luke paced around the living room, rubbed his chest. "Not only do I get the short straw in the physique department, but this one can't take spicy pizza without heartburn. This sucks."

Denise doesn't look up from what her son was doing. "Stop moaning. Hopefully it's just helicobacter pylori, easily fixed with a strong dose of antibiotics. Stick to the ham and pineapple."

Cindy goes to a draw and finds Gaviscon, throws a sachet of liquid in his direction. "Catch!"

Terry grabs a slice of the nearest pizza and takes a bite without once looking at it. "Lovely grub. Both of them."

Cindy passes him and sees the screens updating. "Where did you learn all this?"

"At home. On some old PC hardware Dad's office was chucking out. I put Linux on them. And I got stuff from forums. Then it all got confiscated by the bill."

Denise flicks his ear. "They're called the Police."

"Old bill, coppers, police, same thing."

Cindy grabbed a box and put down more food for Molly. "Why did they confiscate it? Did you try hacking the Pentagon?"

"No." He rolls his eyes and looks to his mother.

"You can say. What's said here today stays here right everyone?"

He turns around to see a load of nods. "My school fired a teacher for hitting a boy in the playground. Only he didn't hit him, a bully made it look like he did. My friend Rashidi was filming her friends doing double-dutch, caught it in the background of the video." He takes another bite.

Cindy had stepped to the kitchen sink and was now washing her hands, "How'd that get you in trouble?"

He covers his mouth, "The head refused to look at it so I put it on the school's website. Right in the middle of the home page. Then changed their admin password so they couldn't take it down quickly."

"I can see why that would have caused a stink."

"I didn't know about hiding source addresses then, our home broadband address was in a load of log entries. It turned out the headmaster is mates with the head of the local police station. They took all the PCs as evidence, said I wasn't to hack again. They've still got them after all this time. But this is white hat stuff right?"

Cindy dried her hands, "Is what?"

John grabs more of the hot pizza, "White hat. An ethical computer hacker, or a computer security expert. Works for the good guys."

Terry nods, "Which is us right?"

Genzo stands and walks over, places a hand on each of the boy's shoulders making him jump. "The very good guys. You can earn well hacking for the right team, and stay legal. Or so one of my associates tells me." He grabs a slice and returns to his seat. "She did penetration testing on our firewall and server to check that the fake John hadn't come in through the network. It turned out fake me had got Sandra to open the door, let them both in. She had no idea it wasn't me. And John looked just as he should have so wasn't challenged either."

Terry taps the screen of the desktop borrowed from the hospital with his Biro. "Is this it.. Do I call you Ruby or Cindy?"

"Either."

"I think this is it Ruby."

Cindy smiles and gets by his side. "Wow. Johns, we should get him along to some of our talks, he's good. We're in!"

Cooper walks over, "Data stores or control systems?"

Cindy looks around the display. "Um.. from the system names.. all of the core? How?"

Terry leans back and stretches. "SSH key vulnerabilities. We were lucky, a new one was found three days ago. I might not have hacked in ages but I still read. The admin last patched these servers.." he types into multiple windows in turn, "Four, four, four, six, four and.. five days ago. If we tried this next week it probably wouldn't work, he'd have patched it."

John looks over everyone's shoulders. "The whole of the Alliance services runs on six servers?"

Terry gets one server to display a file. "From this list I think these are the global control systems, they'd deal with authentication, oversee tasks going out to other servers via load balancers. I'm guessing the ones with L.B in their names are them. They're not small servers, they've.. 128 cores each.

Cindy shakes her head, "This needs some serious locking down. Terry want to earn yourself the top of the line Mac Pro and screens?"

"Hell yes!"

"Cool. When we're done I want you to document everything. And leave a way we can get back in. But only when I do something with a private key known only to me. I don't want just anyone being able to do this."

"If you think of a key it'll end up on one of their servers won't it?"

"Not if I have my block disconnected. Or make it a file in a local private routine. Can you create a way in like that?"

"Best you do both. Easy. From the log files they're using devops to push config out, I just need to hack the master and get an extra ssh account and key pushed out. What do you want me to do next?"

"Search for this compute block serial number." She hands him a slip of paper.

"Where?"

"Everywhere you can."

"Hmm. There could be files with that as part of their name. Or it could be part of a record in a database that points elsewhere. Let me Google for ideas. Mum, can I have a beer?"

Denise looks worried.

There's a sound of a cap being removed and Luke puts one by the keyboard, "You might not have done enough for a Mac yet, but a beer? Sure. Just don't drink it too fast, we need you focused."

"Thanks."

John looks at his other self. "You know what a Mac Pro is?"

"Thanks to a quick search, yes."

One beer and several burps later Terry grinned as a long command line of piped utilities spat out a result. "Found him. Does that deserve another beer?"

Luke cracks open a cold one. "Last one of the evening here. You can open any others you earn at home."

"Cool thanks!"

Denise gives Luke a look, "Hopefully his father believes whatever bs I make up to explain his drinking."

"Na, he'll be fine. I'll explain how he helped save the day. Without giving actual details away of course."

Cindy grins, "So you're going home with them? Shame, I thought the two Johns could keep me warm tonight. Ruby spooning sandwich."

Denise covers his ears. "Careful! He's not that old!"

"Haha Mum! I know more than you think."

Cindy gets out her phone, "Denise, one moment." She beckons her over. "Think a set of these might go down well with your husband?"

"Nerf this?"

Terry laughs. "Pants!"

His mother looks shocked. He still had his eyes on his work. "Where's my sweet innocent boy gone? This is an imposter!"

"Chillax Mum. If you go to search Nerf it suggests Nerf-this and you don't just get guns in those results."

"Does your brother know?"

"Know? Mum, he pointed it out to me and Dad!"

"Oh my dear lord.."

Terry takes a sip of the beer, "Now we've got the guy's data what do we do?"

[Chapter-26](http://markse.name/humans/SF-2/Chapter-26-1)


	26. Chapter 26

"Well lah-di-dah Pale Tits! How's Uni life going for you Lucy?"

"Ruby."

"That's it? I get the replacement bus service all the way here on a Sunday and all you can say is _Ruby_?"

"What are you doing here? And since when do you wear designer dresses like that?"

"Since Luke."

Luke steps over and puts an arm around Ruby's waist. "Hello, you're Lucy aren't you? Save a Lucy meet another.."

"What? Luke you do know.."

"Yes. I fancied the pants off Ruby, why do you think I kept going back for more? It wasn't for the drugs, I just wanted an excuse to be around her. I should have just binned the stuff not actually tried taking it. My mistake. I've forgiven her."

"What! She put you in a coma and you've forgiven her like it was nothing?"

" _I_ put myself in a coma. She just sold me the means to do it. She didn't force them down my throat."

"No, but.."

"What's your problem?"

"I don't have a problem."

"Why the hostility then? You used to be best mates didn't you?"

"Used to be."

Ruby smiled, "I don't have anything to do with the stuff these days. Using or selling."

Luke gives her a squeeze, "And now she's not obsessed with saving the coastline and houses she's found she's got a talent for other things."

Lucy scoffs, "You are kidding me right? Ruby the school dropout?"

"It's taken a lot of intense study, but yeah. What are you studying?"

Lucy looks at the floor, embarrassed, "I'm not, I dropped out."

Ruby looks shocked, "What? You? _Why_?"

"Something didn't work out. Anyway, this party's about you Luke, not me or Ruby."

Luke nodded, "Luke _and friends_. Which, by association, includes you. The reporter's finally buggered off so we can all relax a bit now."

Ruby smiles, "Kiss and make up? Sea monsters, songstresses of the night?"

Lucy shakes her head, "I think we've grown past that."

Ruby holds her pendant, "Don't knock it, it saved me. Twice. If not sea monsters how about ravers? We do good parties, no drugs, just alcohol."

Lucy's expression changes a little, "Getting away from home for a good party would be nice."

"Good, you can crash at mine."

"You're renting somewhere?"

"Nope. Cindy Bexley left her house to me and her daughter in her will."

"Who?"

"The lady that used me as a test case for some research. I was her lab rat."

"For what?"

Ruby turns to show the back of her head, "Neural Lace."

"Oh. Sorry, I dropped out of uni because of a lacer." She starts to walk away.

Ruby goes after her, "Lucy, what happened?"

"Go away Ruby."

"Lucy! Talk to me, maybe I can help?"

"I don't see how.."

"I _know people_ now. People that can do stuff. Properly fix stuff. What happened?"

Lucy walks outside the hall. "Promise you won't tell?"

"On my life."

"I finally met a guy, popped my cherry. The bastard only said he'd post memories of our time together if I didn't do certain things for him."

"The shit. Did he?"

"I don't know, I packed my bags and left for the next train home."

"Shit. Got a name?"

"Sure. Why?"

Ruby smiles, "Promise you can keep a secret too?"

"Promise."

"One of my.. contacts.." she looks around to see nobody's in earshot. "Um.. he's a cleaner."

"Like the one's in films that remove dead bodies?"

"No no! God no. He hacks, cleans out memories in the Alliance servers, wipes the memory from the person's head."

"What? That's not possible is it?"

"Tis now he's had the right training. Okay. It's not so much _wipe_ , it's replace again and again with something else that takes over."

"Like?"

"How nasty do you want it?"

"What do you mean?"

"Fucking his grandma, a pig, a.."

"Ewww. That's nasty!"

"Exactly."

"And if he's shared already?"

"Let's fix one thing at a time. Stay with us for a bit in London, we've got a spare room. And the lady that experimented on me, she shared some memories. Quite a few actually. So you could say I'm part Cindy, part Ruby. At uni they know me as Chloe."

"You've got three names?"

"Yeah, messed up isn't it."

Jim walks over with a can of beer.

"Dad! You made it! They do have glasses."

"Tastes better from the can. Finally talking to each other again without the frosting then are you?"

"Yeah, starting to. How's the bungalow? Fancy moving to London and staying with us? We're not that far from the Thames."

"Thanks, I'll stay where I can still hear the waves."

Lucy gets her purse open, "Excuse me a moment. I'm going to make an offering. I don't plan to go swimming any time soon, but, you never know.."

Ruby calls after her, "Have you seen the dolphin?"

"Where?"

"Here."

"We never had any around here."

"One helped save me the second time I think. Had my Ruby pendant in it's mouth just as I was passing out. At least I think it was a dolphin."

"I which case the sea's getting my gold chain not pound coins."

Ruby turns to her father. "My little secret, it's still safe?"

"Ruby Cindy Chloe? My lips are sealed. I'd rather have part of a daughter than none."

"Thanks Dad."

"Do you really feel like I'm your father?"

"For half of me, yes. Give me a hug you daft old fisherman."

"Oi! Not so much of the old! So which one's your boyfriend? I've seen you snuggling up to two tonight."

"Both."

"Luke _and_ John?"

"One to love Cindy, one to love Ruby. I can't help it if we're both in the same body."

Jim puts his hands over his ears as best he could given that one was holding a can of beer. "That be wayyyy too much information girl. I'm off to mingle." He winks. "Stay safe Ruby, come visit."

"Love you Dad!"

Cooper looks through an open door, spots Cindy and strolls over, phone out. "You might want to watch this. Police have just made arrests."

"Where?"

"In England."

"What?" She takes the phone, "Not Japan?"

"No. In some ways I wish it was. Tap the pause icon."

Cindy watches, "Queen B looks a bit different."

"Yeah, she's chilled out since the episode with John. Remember Terry's double-dutch story?"

"Yes?"

"Keep your eyes on the background not her."

"Why.. oh bloody hell! Not professor Williams!"

"I'm afraid so. Zilla called me as the news broke. The professor confessed to everything."

"So he's Komodo Dragon. Trying to throw suspicion at the Japanese team. Who worked out the link?"

"One of Zilla's staff. He says you've met her? Suzuko?"

"You have too, as Luke."

"A shame I don't remember. He said when he asked the staff at the restaurant if Komodo Dragon meant anything to them she asked for a moment and ran to the office. Apparently a lot of members just sign a bill and it goes on their account. She scans the lot to put them on the system. She'd remembered one with crossed out initials and went through many thousands to find it. K.D crossed out for B.W. The doc is furious as he'd introduced the man. That's when Doctor Akiyama had been first in town to show Zilla the new compute device prototype."

"Bloody hell. Go Suzuko!"

"Zilla's given her a promotion as a reward and make her an honorary founding member. That gives her a cut of the profits."

"Nice."

"They found his double too. And my fake parents. They're all.." he turns at the sound of footsteps on gravel.

Lucy had returned from her offering trip. "Hello. Who's this?"

"Lucy this is my other boyfriend and Uni lecturer John Cooper."

"What! _Two_! That's _so_ unfair! You've always.."

"Chill! Hang out with us for a bit in London, we'll soon get you hooked up."

John smiles, "I know just the lad. Mike. He works in a store I need to return some things I've not used to. Let me film you dancing with Ruby and post it. I'll focus on you. If he likes it.."

Ruby nods, "We've a room, you can help us build an alternative underwear business if you want to earn some cash. And we can help you get onto a course at our uni.."

"Mid course? It would be.."

"We can push you some skills if you.."

Luke comes running, "If she goes on about Ruby any more.. Someone please shoot me!"

Lucy frowns, "She?"

"Luke's Mother!"

Lucy frowns even harder, "Luke's mother? But you _are_ Luke."

Ruby puts an arm around her friend, "Right, Lucy, before we get the DJ to change the music and get this party properly started how about we talk about that promise you made Cindy and I.."


End file.
